British Coracles and Irish Curraghs: with a Note on the Quffah of Iraq

Abstract

IN this volume, Mr. Hornell reprints a series of articles which appeared originally in The Mariner's Mirror, the official publication of the Society for Nautical Research. It is, he points out, the first connected account of these interesting survivals of the primitive British boats, the coracle and the curragh, which are still to be seen on the rivers of Wales and the Welsh marches, and on the west coast of Ireland. In England and Scotland they are now extinct. The English coracle, the author holds, has a common ancestry with the quffah of Iraq, but is not related to the Irish curragh. This latter is of composite origin and a product of an indigenous Celtic development. Mr. Hornell discusses details of construction with the thoroughness he has taught us to expect from him in his studies of canoes and other craft.

British Coracles and Irish Curraghs: with a Note on the Quffah of Iraq

James

Hornell

By. (Published for the Society for Nautical Research.) Pp. xii + 168 + 23 plates. (London: Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., 1938.) 7s. 6d. net.