bircines, were found to be more than a match for the leviathans,

whose doom from that moment was scaled.

From that time, with the exception ef the accounts of naumachia, there is very little of interest about galleys to be gathered. The coins and the paintings of Pompeii show us craft degenerating in type. The column of Trajan exhibits biremes as still in vogue. Later on there isa light thrown upon the subject by the Zweficx of the Byzantine Emperor Leo about 800 4.b., who gives directions as to the building and composition of his fleet, which is to consist of biremes, or dromones as he calls them, and light galleys with one bank of oars.

From these latter eventually sprang the medieval galley, which however differed from the ancient galley in the arrange- ment of its oars by the use of the ‘apostis,’ a projecting framework which (ook the place of the ancient ‘ parodus,’ and upon which the thowls were placed, against which the long sweeps could be plied by two or three men attached to each. Vor full and accurate descriptions of these medizval vessels the reader who has any curiosity on the subject should consult the ample works of M. Jal. Lis Archiologie Navale and Glossuire Nautigue contain the fullest inforrnation as regards the build, and fittings, and crews of the medizeval galley. The sorrows and sufferings of ‘la Chiourme’ were enough to give rowing a had namie, as an employment too cruel even for slaves and fit to be reserved for criminals of the worst description.

It is in England, and in the hands of English free men and boys, that the oar has maintaincd an honourable name, as the instrument of a pastime healthy and vigorous, with a record not inglorious of struggles in which the strength and skill of the nation’s youth have contended for the pride of place and the joy of victory.