atform, the prototype of a deck. It was but
a step to build up the sides and turn up the ends, and at this point we
reach the genesis of ark and punt, of sanpan and junk, or, in other
words, of all the many varieties of flat-bottomed craft.

When once we have reached the point at which the improvements in the
construction of the raft and dug-out bring them, as it were, within
sight of each other, we can enter upon the history of the development of
boats properly so called, which, in accordance with the uses and the
circumstances that dictated their build, may be said to be descended
from the raft or the dug-out, or from the attempt to combine the
respective advantages of the two original types.

Uses and circumstances are infinite in variety and have produced an
infinite variety of boats. But we may safely say that in all cases the
need to be satisfied, the nature of the material available, and the
character of the difficulties to be overcome have governed the reason
and tested the reasonableness of the architecture of the craft in use.

It is not proposed in this article to enter at any length into the
details of the construction of boats, but it is desirable, for the sake
of clearness, to indicate certain broad distinctions in the method of
building, which, though they run back into the far past, in some form or
other survive and are in use at the present day.

The tying of trunks together to form a raft is still not unknown in the
lumber trade of the Danube or of North America, nor was it in early days
confined to the raft. It extended to many boats properly so called, even
to many of those built by the Vikings of old. It may still be seen in
the Madras surf boats, and in those constructed out of driftwood by the
inhabitants of Easter Island in the south Pacific. Virgil, who was an
archaeologist, represents Charon's boat on the Styx as of this
construction, and notes the defect, which still survives, in the craft
of the kind when loaded--

"Gemuit sub pondere cymba
Sutilis, et multam accepit rimosa paludem!"
_Aen._ vi. 303.

Next to the raft, and to be counted in direct descent from it, comes the
whole class of flat-bottomed boats including punts and lighters. As soon
as the method of constructing a solid floor, with trenails and dowels,
had been discovered, the method of converting it into a water-tight box
was pursued, sides were attached plank fashion, with strong knees to
stiffen them