544 KErOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



joints covi'ird with stiaijilit iticces ol' wood li inches in diameter, fas- 

 tened by lasliin,i;-, wliicli was ]»assed tlirougli the hoh.'s and over tliese 

 ronnd iiackin,^' pieces. 



Owing to tlie pecniiar niaiiner of constrnction and iiietliod (»f tying 

 the ]danking and framing togetliei, and leaving solid cleats in the 

 planks, specnlat ion lias connected this raft with the Viking ships of 

 Tnne and (lokstad, in Norway. Tliis method, however, is notconfine<l 

 to the na\al strnctnres of tlie eighth to the tenth centnry, bnt also 

 occurs in the boat of the third century found in Nydani Moss, Den- 

 mark, from the description of Avhich, by Engelhardt^ we learn that "on 

 all the plaidvs there are perforated clamps of one and the same piece 

 with the planks themselves, having been left projecting when the 

 planks were cut out of the solid tindjer, and the ribs had perforations 

 corresponding to the clamps, through which bast ropes wa're passed, 

 tying planks and ril)s together. 



Nor does it stop here; but the same arrangement occurs in there- 

 pairs shown in the ancient boat found in the vicinity of the raft, and 

 in a canoe of the identical type found at Valermoor, Denmark, and now 

 in the museum at Kiel,^ thus suggesting a common origin for those ob- 

 jeets now under consideration. 



In point of tyjae these boats correspond to those ascribed by Tacitus 

 in 70 A. !).■' to the Batavians and Frisians, and although it is possible 

 that the Eomans would have employed such craft in crossing from 

 Gaul to Great Britain, it is safe to assume that the same mode of con- 

 strnction may have been employed by the contemporaries in liritain. 

 In point of anticpiity, the position of the boat, raft, and planking, rela- 

 tively to the geological formation does uot necessarily connect them 

 with the ])eriod expressed by the glacial drift upon or in the immediate 

 vicinity of which tliey have found their last resting place, since even 

 iu historic times Glanford Brigg, now 9 miles from the Humber, was 

 known as a tishing hamlet. This points to a more ready coinnninica- 

 tion with the open water than at present, the intervening space having 

 gradually filled up with deposits, the soft nature of wliich would cause 

 the heavy objects, by their own weight, to find a lower level than the 

 one corresponding to the period to which they properly belong, that of 

 the Eoman invasion, relics of wliich are found among the upi)er layer 

 of forest land underlying the modern surface land. 



A third specimen of this type is that known as the 



Jjoch Arthur Boat^ (Plate Lxxi), found by Mr. Pittendjeon of ( 'argeu, 

 Dumfries, Scotland, iu the summer of 187G in Lotus Loch, or Loch 

 Arthur, about 6 miles west of Dumfries. 



' Engelhardt, C. : Denmark in the Pearly lion Age, London, 1866. 



- Hand elm ann H. : .35te Koric-ht /,nr Altcrtluiiiisknnde Schleswig-Holsteins. Kiel, 

 1878. 



^ TacHufi. Hist,, v, 23. 



' ritfcndjeon, Mr.: Unp^l)li^slled letter of Ajuil l'(>. ]88(),t(> Mr. Win. Stevenson, ainl 

 opmrannicated h\ Iiim to tlie .antlioy, 



