ities of building material could be
conveniently concentrated at a given spot, and by which supplies could
afterwards be regularly received from a distance. We see in the Assyrian
sculptures the conveyance of stones, planks, etc. along the rivers, as
well as the passage of chariots, horses, and persons across them. Rafts
and round boats were most commonly used for this purpose. When a mass of
unusual size, as a huge paving-stone, or a colossal bull or lion, had to
be moved, a long, flat-bottomed boat was employed, which the mass
sometimes more than covered. In this case, as there was no room for
rower's, trackers were engaged, who dragged the vessel along by means of
ropes, which were fastened either to the boat itself or to its burden.
[PLATE CXXXIII., Fig. 2.]

During the later period of the monarchy various improvements took place
in Assyrian boat-building. The Phoenician and Cyprian expeditions of the
later kings made the Assyrians well acquainted with the ships of
first-rate nautical nations; and they seem to have immediately profited
by this acquaintance, in order to improve the appearance and the quality
of their own river boats. The clumsy and inelegant long-boat of the
earlier times, as replaced, even for ordinary traffic, by a light and
graceful fabric, which was evidently a copy from Phoenician models.
Modifications, which would seem trifling if described, changed the whole
character of the vessels, in which light and graceful curves took the
place of straight lines and angles only just rounded off. The stem and
stern were raised high above the body of the boat, and were shaped like
fishes' tails or carved into the heads of animals. [PLATE CXXXIII., Fig.
2.] Oars, shaped nearly like modern ones, came into vogue, and the
rowers were placed so as all to look one way, and to pull instead of
pushing with their oars. Finally, the principle of the bireme was
adopted, and river-galleys were constructed of such a size that they had
to be manned by thirty rowers, who sat in two tiers one above the other
at the sides of the galley, while the centre part, which seems to have
been decked, was occupied by eight or ten other persons.

In galleys of this kind the naval architecture of the Assyrians seems to
have culminated. They never, so far as appears, adopted for their boats
the inventions with which their intercourse with Phoenicia had rendered
them perfectly familiar, of masts, and sails. This is probably to be
explai