HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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residence of the Caesars. In their origin, the two cities were no more thancamps, or fairs, the most convenient stations in which the barbarians mightassemble for the occasional business of war or trade ; yet even these assembliesannounce some progress in the arts of society: a new breed of cattle was im-ported from the southern provinces, and the spirit of commercial enterprisepervaded the sea and land, from the Baltic to the Euxine, from the mouth ofthe Oder to the port of Constantinople. In the day of idolatry and barbarism,the Schlavonic cities were frequented and enriched by the Normans, who hadprudently secured a free mart of purchase and exchange. From the har-bour at the entrance of the Oder, the corsair or merchant sailed in forty-threedays to the eastern shores of the Baltic. The most distant nations were inter-mingled, and the holy groves of Courland are said to have been decorated withGrecian and Spanish gold.”

The foregoing account might be considered somewhat irrelative to the illus-tration of Marine Architecture, were it not subsequently connected with it,and rendered peculiarly interesting from its affording a perfect and uninter-rupted detail of the history of a people, from their first emersion out of a stateof barbarism, and complete ignorance, with respect to the science of navigation,and all arts connected with it, till they had attained the rank and consequencethey at present hold. “ Between the sea and Novogorod,” continues theauthor just quoted, “ an easy intercourse was discovered in the summerthrough a gulf, a lake, and a navigable river; in the winter season, over thehard and level surface of boundless snows. From the neighbourhood of thatcity, the Russians descended the streams that fall into the Borysthenes. Theircanoes of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age, furs of everyspecies, the spoil of their bee-hives, and the hides of their cattle, and the wholeproduce of the north, was collected and discharged in the magazines of Kiow.The month of June was the ordinary season for the departure of the fleet.The timber of the canoes was framed into the oars and benches of more solidand capacious boats, and they proceeded, without obstacle, down the Borys-thenes, as far as the Seve, where thirteen ridges of rocks, which traversethe bed, precipitate the waters of the river. At the more shallow falls, itwas sufficient to lighten the vessels, but the deeper cataracts were impassable,and the mariners, who dragged their vessels and their slaves six miles overland, were exposed, in this toilsome journey, to the robbers of the desert.

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