As has been already noticed, some almost circular boats, made of wicker-work, are still in use in Wales, and may fairly be supposed to represent a similar class of boats of much earlier times. On the other hand, we know pretty well, from Cæsar’s description, the character of the larger and stronger vessels of the Veneti.[407] Thus from him we learn that they were built flatter than the Roman merchant ships, for convenience in navigating shallow waters, and that having erect stems and full bows, they were well adapted to resist the violence of the waves in a storm; while he further admits that, as they were constructed entirely of oak, they were not easily damaged by the sharp iron beaks of the Roman galleys. Such vessels could hardly have failed to attract the attention of the Britons, with whom the Veneti long maintained friendly and commercial intercourse, while it is very probable that, from them, the Britons learnt the art of constructing ships of war. But though it is likely that their intercourse with the Veneti may have had some advantages, it is, at the same time, probable that there was no marked improvement in the form and construction of the greater number of British merchant vessels till the Emperor Claudius bestowed by law various privileges upon those persons who built vessels of a superior class for trading purposes.[408] As these privileges, however, only applied to ships capable of carrying ten thousand Roman modii, or about three hundred and twelve quarters of wheat, it is further evident that the framer of the law was desirous of encouraging the building of a larger and better class of vessels than then existed. But though a vessel capable of carrying only about sixty tons weight is much less than the average size of the coasters of the present century, little or no increase had apparently been made in their dimensions even three hundred years afterwards; for the trade in corn alone between Britain and the ports of Gaul required for its conduct, in the reign of Julian, eight hundred vessels. [Sidenote: Britain and its inhabitants little known.] Although Britain had been for so many centuries more or less known to the Phœnicians, the Carthaginians, and the neighbouring continental tribes, it continued up to the time of the invasion of Julius Cæsar, B.C., to be a _terra incognita_ to the rest of the ancient world; the preservation of such ignorance having been no doubt a matter of state policy with those who had some acquaintance with it, in order that the monopoly of their trade might not be interfered with by any interlopers. Hence, too, the stories sedulously spread of the barbarous character of its inhabitants, of the naked bodies painted with colours in imitation of beasts of prey, though Cæsar himself only says that “they stained themselves blue with woad, and wore their hair long, with moustachios.”