BOATS. 91 



Lan (west coast of Sweden) .* He also figures a number of sinkers with single 

 grooves. 



To the figures of sinkers here presented others could be added, but I have 

 selected only such as most probably were sink-stones ; for, without entering into 

 details, I will confess that I have my doubts as to several other figured specimens 

 to which that character is attributed. 



Professor Virchow alludes to ancient clay net-sinkers, chiefly obtained from 

 pile-works in Prussia, which, however, are of comparatively late origin, being 

 referable to the close of pagan times. The largest and most recent of the 

 sinkers, from Boissin Lake near Belgard (Pomerania) are described as large flat 

 round discs with a hole in the centre, and, as a rule, rather slightly burned. Of 

 special interest is Professor Virchow's observation that such clay net-weights, 

 burned entii'cly black (gam schwarz gebrannt) , are still used in Eastern Prussia.f 



Boats. Quite a number of ancient boats, discovered under circumstances 

 favoring preservation, have been described by various authors, but most of them 

 doubtless belong to post-neolithic times. There is in the Provincial Museum at 

 Berlin an oaken dug-out, formed like a shallow trough, and hollowed out by 

 means of fire, while its outside is rudely shaped with stone instruments. It 

 measures, in its present shrunken state, eight meters in length and about forty 

 centimeters in width. This boat was found near Berneuchen, in the District of 

 Landsberg on the Warthe (Brandenburg), two meters imbedded in peat.J It 

 may be a relic of the stone age. 



I find no reference to existing stone-age boats in such publications on Danish 

 and Scandinavian antiquities as are within my reach. Professor Nilsson treats 

 of boats in a transient way, merely alluding to the probable method of their 

 manufacture. " These (the boats) seem to have been excavated trunks of trees, 

 for the broad gouge has evidently been used for excavating wood." 



Sir W. Wilde describes several ancient Irish boats still in existence, though 

 without giving any clue as to the time from which they may date. " So far as 

 we yet know," he observes, " two kinds of boats appear to have been in use in 

 very early times in the British Isles the canoe and the curragh|| the one 

 formed out of a single piece of wood, the other composed of wicker-work, covered 

 with hide. No ancient specimen of the curragh could, however, have come down 

 to modern times. The single-piece canoe is generally formed of oak, and may 

 be divided into three varieties, viz., a small trough-shaped one, square at the 



* Nilsson : Primitive Inhabitants ; p. 26. 



f Circularc dos Deutschen Fischerei-Vercins im Jahre 1873; Berlin, 1873; p. 149. 



J Friedel : Fiihror durch die Fischerei-Abtheilung ; p. 2. 



Nilsson : Primitive Inhabitants ; p. 101. 



|| Coracle. 



