To these rafts would naturally have succeeded boats of one kind or another.  As early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I. (ab.  B.C. 1120) we find a mention of boats as employed in the passage of the Euphrates.  These would probably be of the kind described by Herodotus, and represented on one of the most ancient bas-reliefs—­round structures like the Welsh coracles, made of wickerwork and covered with skins, smeared over with a coating of bitumen.  Boats of this construction were made of a considerable size.  The one represented contains a chariot, and is navigated by two men. [PLATE CXXXIII., Fig. 1.] In the later sculptures the number of navigators is raised to four, and the boats carry a heavy load of stone or other material.  The mode of propulsion is curious and very unusual.  The rowers sit at the stem and stern, facing each other, and while those at the stem pull, those at the stern must have pushed, as Herodotus tells us that they did.  The make of the oars is also singular.  In the earliest sculptures they are short poles, terminating in a head, shaped like a small axe or hammer; in the later, below this axe-like appendage, they have a sort of curved blade, which is, however, not solid, but perforated, so as to form a mere framework, which seems to require filling up. [PLATE CXXXIII., 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.