92 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



ends, from eight to twelve feet long, round at the bottom, and having projecting 

 handles at either extremity, apparently for the purpose of transporting it from 

 place to place. Such a boat could be used either in fishing or as a means of 

 transport upon the inland lakes and rivers. This, in common with the two other 

 varieties, is very shallow, so that those who used it must have sat flat upon the 

 bottom, and progressed themselves by means of light paddles probably one 

 used in either hand ; this is further confirmed by the total absence of all appear- 

 ance of row-locks. The second variety generally averages twenty feet in length 

 and about two in breadth, is flat-bottomed, round at the prow, and nearly square 



at the stern. The third variety of ancient Irish canoe is sharp at both 



ends."* 



He refers to the discovery of a boat of the first-mentioned kind in Monaghan 

 County, but furnishes no illustration. It may or may not be a boat made 

 during the stone age. The two other kinds are represented by specimens in the 

 Dublin Museum, and Sir W. Wilde gives figures of them, which I will not 

 reproduce, because the originals appear to belong to more or less recent periods. 



"A single-piece canoe," he says, " has been discovered either upon or in the 

 vicinity of all the crannoges which have been carefully examined. They have 

 also been found in bogs and in the beds of rivers, as the Boyne, the Brosna, and 

 the Ban, etc. Ware says that single-piece canoes were in use on some rivers in 

 Ireland in his time. The curragh or coracle is still employed : upon the Boyne 

 it is formed of wicker-work, covered with hide ; and in Aran the framework is 

 formed of light timber, fastened together with great ingenuity, and covered with 

 canvas. "f 



While treating of " Upheaval since the Human Period of the Central 

 District of Scotland," Sir Charles Lyell gives a highly interesting account of 

 boats imbedded in silt bordering the estuary of the river Clyde ; and though his 

 observations refer to* boats of different periods, I cannot resist the temptation of 

 inserting here the distinguished investigator's valuable information : 



" It has long been a fact familiar to geologists, that, both on the east and west 

 coasts of the central part of Scotland, there are lines of raised beaches, contain- 

 ing marine shells of the same species as those now inhabiting the neighboring 

 sea. The two most marked of these littoral deposits occur at heights of about 

 forty and twenty-five feet above high-water mark, that of forty feet being con- 

 sidered as the more ancient, and owing its superior elevation to a longer con- 

 tinuance of the upheaving movement. They are seen in some places to rest on 

 the arctic shell-beds and boulder clay of the glacial period. 



* Sir W. Wilde : Catalogue ; p. 202, etc. 

 f Ibid. ; p. 204. 



