Boats of skin.
Although for years after the Flood[1] the raft may
have been the only form of vessel for carrying heavy
burthens, other means of flotation must soon have
suggested themselves; and of these, the inflated
skins of animals would seem to have prevailed the
most generally and the most widely. Thus on the
ancient monuments recently discovered by Mr.
Layard, we find numerous representations of the
Assyrians crossing a river—probably the Tigris—on
inflated skins; and rafts may also be seen on
which goods and men are floating down similarly
supported.[2] The same practice is still in use among
the present inhabitants of the country, and is also
noticed as common on the Setlege by Baron Hügel, in
his interesting "Travels in Cashmir."[3] Baron Hügel
also speaks of baskets, suspended from ropes firmly
tied to each shore, for crossing the mountain waters
of the same river; while coracles—basket-work
over which leather or prepared flannel has been
stretched—may still be seen in Wales, thus enabling
the inhabitants to fish, and to cross streams not
- ↑ The Scriptural narrative of a great flood, and of a great vessel to float upon it, has just met with a remarkable confirmation. At a meeting of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Sir Henry Rawlinson in the chair, on December 3, 1872, Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, read a paper, giving an account of his discovery, on cuneiform tablets (part of the so-called library of Ashur-ban-i-pal, king of Nineveh), of an unquestionable account of the Deluge. The name of the king under whom this event occurred cannot as yet be deciphered, nor can anything like a certain date be assigned to it; but Sir Henry Rawlinson accepted fully the truth of Mr. Smith's decipherings. Of the inscription describing the Flood, there are fragments of three copies, containing duplicate texts.
- ↑ Layard, First Series. Pls. 10, 12, 13, 15, 25, 27, 28.
- ↑ Hügel, "Travels in Cashmir," p. 27, with a picture, p. 247.
