The arrangements of the ram varied a good deal as is shown by the figures, but the form of the vessel itself was not influenced thereby. This element was the emblem of power and was meant to inspire terror. There is nothing astonishing then that, in most of the old drawings, the draughtsman should have dwelt rather on this detail than on the ship itself, thus causing the shape of this latter to become an accessory. The ram, which was already in use among the Phœnicians, did not appear among the Greeks until B. C. 536. (Dr. ~Em. Lübeck~, p. 13.) Whence it follows, and it cannot be repeated too often, that the art of shipbuilding had reached a higher degree of perfection with the Phœnicians than among the Greeks and that the former exercised a preponderating influence over the peoples dwelling along the shores of the Mediterranean. Hence, the thesis of uniformity of the boats of the Mediterranean could be sustained, but this would not imply that each people had known but one type of vessel. Boats of sundry types existed at the same time; there were the short bluff merchant ships side by side with the long vessels driven by oars, and perfected types were crowded against the primitive. History tells us, that Cæsar put to sea with a fleet thirty days after the cutting of the wood to be used in its construction. (~Nicolas Witsen~, p. 12, col. 1.) It would be hard to grant that the boats which composed this fleet were well finished ships moved by oars. They were, doubtless flat bottomed vessels, of the type which is still found in the Adriatic and which is so well reproduced in the “Rascona”. (~Paris~, Vol. II, and _Das Seewesen der Gr. und R._ by Dr. ~Em. Lübeck~, p. 39.) The rapid construction of the fleet in question furnishes one proof more in favor of the point raised regarding the small size of ships. In order to show more clearly what is meant by uniformity in the shape of vessels, attention will be called to the “tialque” type of the Netherlands, which is found, with slight changes and under other names, from Denmark to Belgium. All the boats of this type have a common fundamental character; but with the tialque are met still other types which are also found elsewhere. So, from Denmark to Belgium, there is a series of well defined fundamental types and hence we can speak of common forms. This remark applies also to the Mediterranean (_Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines_, 36th part, p. 24; _Navis_), where these fundamentals have been preserved for centuries: the old types of wooden vessels to be met with at the present time still give an exact idea of them, save in what relates to the rudder and rig. Sundry types have evidently been set aside or have undergone changes demanded by local conditions, so that, in order to find among them the fundamental characters belonging to a given country, it is often necessary to seek elsewhere.