Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

zgS Monuments of Antiquity
told by Solinus, that the Britons and Irifli com-
mitted themfelves to the mercy of a tempeftuous
fea in wicker hulls covered with cow hides *. It
is not above thirty years fince one of thofe South
Britifh boats or curachs was ufed in the ifle of
Sky : and though the Norwegians had taught the
Iflanders the ufe of building boats with wood in
a very early period, yet thefe curachs were the
only kind which they employed on ordinary occa-
fions, till within a century back.
Some of the ancient curachs mud have been
much larger than thofe {^^w in late ages. Mari-
anus Scotus fpeaks of three devout Irifhmen, who,
upon having formed a refolution of leading a life
of pilgrimage, left their country with great fe-
crefy, and taking with them provifions for a week,
came in a boat made of fkins, without fails or
oars, atter a navigation of {^'^t'i\ days, into Corn-
wall. We are informed by Adamnan, that St.
Cormack, another wrong-headed monk, who went
from lona to the Orkneys in queft of a proper
hermitage, was with all his enthufialm wife enough
to keep oars in his curach ; by this precaution
he got fafely through the ocean. Thefe curachs
muft have been of a tolerable fiz% otherwil'e the
romantic palTengers could never have made oit
their voyages.
The curach in which St, Columba came from
Ireland into lona, muft have been little lefs than
forty feet long, if the tradition hitherto preferved
in that Ifland deferves credit. And we are told by
Sidonius Appolinaris t, that it was no more than
♦ Vimlmii /iheb. t Carm \ii.
matter