Wicker boats and skin-float pontoons for crossing rivers
Willow coracles daubed in the Assyrian manner, and quick bridges of hurdles over ox-hide floats
The sheet illustrates two ancient craft for crossing rivers. At the top, a light boat ('navicula') of the Assyrian kind, made of thin willow rods woven over willow poles into the shape of a small boat and daubed with an oil- or turpentine-soaked powder like mud, so it resists the water and does not split; Caesar clothed such boats in ox-hides when crossing the Sicoris in Spain, as Lucan records. Below, a raft-like pontoon shows how the Spaniards, Scythians and Arabs make a sudden bridge by binding willow hurdles over skin-floats of ox-hide, and so cross safely.
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Willow coracle in the Assyrian manner
The little boats of the Assyrians were made of thin willow rods woven over willow poles into a small boat and daubed with a fine powder soaked in oil or turpentine, mud-like, which resisted water and did not split under blows because it stayed fresh. Caesar clothed such boats with ox-hides in crossing the Sicoris, as Lucan testifies.
Sudden bridge of hurdles on ox-hide floats
The Spaniards, Scythians and Arabs, when they want a sudden bridge, bind willow hurdles over the skin-floats, that is, ox-hide water-skins, and so cross safely. A raft of hurdles lashed across rows of floats is drawn in the lower half.