Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 1.djvu/27

Rh vessels of this principal maritime power of Gaul——provided, amongst other things, Cæsar assures us, with chain cables (anchoræ, pro funibus, ferreis catenis revinctæ)——is in violent contradiction to the general bearing of all the other recorded and probable facts respecting the condition of our island and its inhabitants at that period. There is no evidence or reason for believing that they were masters of any other navigating vessels than open boats, of which it may be doubted if any were even furnished with sails. Their common boat appears to have been what is still called the currach by the Irish, and the coracle (cwrwgyl) by the Welsh, formed of osier twigs, covered with hide. The small boats yet in use upon the rivers of Wales and Ireland are in shape like a walnut-shell, and rowed with one paddle. Pliny, as already noticed, quotes the old Greek historian Timseus, as affirming that the Britons used to make their way to an island at the distance of six days' sail in boats made of wattles, and covered with skins ; and Solinus states that, in his time, the communication between Britain and Ireland was kept up on both sides by means of these vessels. Cæsar, in his history of the Civil War, tells us that, having learned their use while in Britain, he availed himself of them in crossing rivers in Spain; and we learn from Lucan, that they were used on the Nile and the Po, as well as by the Britons. Another kind of British boat seems to have been made out of a single tree, like the Indian canoes. Several of these have been discovered. In 1736 one was dug up from a morass called Lockermoss, in Dumfries, Scotland. It was seven feet long, dilated to a considerable breadth at one end; the paddle was found near it. Another, hollowed out of a solid tree, was seen by Mr. Pennant, near Rilblain. It measured eight feet three inches long, and eleven inches deep. In the year 1720 several canoes similar to these were dug up in the marshes of the river Medway, above Maidstone; one of them so well preserved as to be used as a boat for some time afterwards. On draining Martine Muir, or Marton Lake, in Lancashire, there were found sunk at the bottom eight canoes, each made