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

in the ScotliJJj Ifles. ^o^g
jiiatter of amufement with the Saxon pirates of his
time, to crofs the Britilh lea in fuch leathern
veflcis. Boats made oF the fame materials, were
very commonly ufed by other ancient nations, par-
ticularly by the Spaniards * and the Veneti near
the Po t. It was in fuch tranfports that Caslar
wafred his men over the river Sicoris, before he
attacked Pompfy's lieutenants near Ilerda t-
Besides thefe wicker pinnaces, the ancient in-
habitants of Caledonia had a kii'd of canoe in
which they fifhedon rivers and frelfi water lakes.
This kind of canoe was hollowed out of a large
Tree, either with fire or tools of iron. In the
Galic of Scotland, a boat of that make was call-
ed Amniir or trough, and Cotti in the language ;
of Ireland. A few of thefe canoes are ftill to be
feen in the Wefhern Highlands : and Virgil was
not perhaps far miftaken, when he imagined that
the firft experiments in navigation were made in
fnch bottoms ||. It cannot be aflerted that the
fllanders had galleys, or what they called long
lliips, til! the Norwegians were fettled among
them. After that period they furely had fuch
velTels, and in imitation of their maflers, rowed
about in them in quefl of plunder from fea to fea
Through almoft all the feafbns of the year **.
The hiftories of Scotland are full of the de-
predations committed by the Iflandersof the mid-
* Srrabo. f Geo^g. lib iii. \ Liican Phar. 1 iv.
II Ainos primum fluvli fenfere cavatas. Georg. i.
** The fame prattice took place among fhe ancient inhs-
blrants of the Greci;in ifiands, foon after they knew how to
CPallrudt gaJlep. Thuci^i. lib, i.
die