II., Fig. 3.]

[Illustration: PLATE 133]

Beside these round boats, which correspond closely with the _kufas_ in
use upon the Tigris and Euphrates at the present day, the Assyrians
employed for the passage of rivers, even in very early times, a vessel
of a more scientific construction. The early bas-reliefs exhibit to us,
together with the _kufas_, a second and much larger vessel, manned with
a crew of seven men--a helmsman and six rowers, three upon either side
and capable of conveying across a broad stream two chariots at a time,
or a chariot and two or three passengers. This vessel appears to have
been made of planks. It was long, and comparatively narrow. It had a
flattish bottom, and was rounded off towards the stem and stern, much as
boats are rounded off towards the bows at the present day. It did not
possess either mast or sail, but was propelled wholly by oars, which
were of the same shape as those used anciently by the rowers in the
round boats. In the steersman's hand is seen an oar of a different kind.
It is much longer than the rowing oars, and terminates in an oval blade,
which would have given it considerable power in the water. [PLATE
CXXXIII., Fig. 4.] The helmsman steered with both hands; and it seems
that his oar was lashed to an upright post near the stern of the vessel.

It is evident that before armies could look habitually to being
transported across the Mesopotamian streams, wherever they might happen
to strike them in their expeditions, by boats of these two kinds, either
ferries must have been established at convenient intervals upon them, or
traffic along their courses by means of boats must have been pretty
regular. An Assyrian army did not carry its boats with it, as a modern
army does its pontoons. Boats were commonly found in sufficient numbers
on the streams themselves when an army needed them, and were impressed,
or hired, to convey the troops across. And thus we see that the actual
navigation of the streams had another object besides the military one of
transport from bank to bank. Rivers are Nature's roads; and we may be
sure that the country had not been long settled before a water
communication began to be established between towns upon the
river-courses, and commodities began to be transported by means of them.
The very position of the chief towns upon time banks of the streams was
probably connected with this sort of transport, the rivers furnishing
the means by which large quant