INFLATED SKIN RAFT (FROM ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE).
"It seemed so funny to make up a raft in this way, but the Doctor informed us that the idea was a very old one. He said it was in practice among the ancient Assyrians, as there were pictures on the walls of their temples of men rowing rafts made of inflated skins, which were preferred to jars on account of their obviating the necessity of frequent bailing.
"We thought of the scriptural phrase, and asked, 'Is there anything new under the sun?'
AN ANCIENT LIFE-PRESERVER.
"'There are fewer new things than you might suppose,' was the Doctor's reply. 'Perhaps you think the inflated life-preserver is a modern invention, but it isn't. The Assyrians had it centuries ago; and we learn from their sculptures that their warriors used to swim across rivers on the skins of goats that were filled with air, just as we fill the life-preservers that we buy in New York or London. I believe that a patent was granted to the modern inventor, but the Assyrian was thousands of years ahead of him.'
"One of us suggested that perhaps the modern inventor was honest, and thought he really had made an entirely new thing.