Note 33 — Chapter IV · THE EARLY SHIPS OF NORTHERN EUROPE.
Reading edition
The Veneti lived in the extreme north-west corner of France, and have left behind the name of the town Vannes, facing the Bay of Biscay, and opposite Belle Isle.
The Greeks and Romans having learned their seamanship on the practically tideless waters of the Mediterranean must have been appalled by the ebb and flow of the Northern Seas. Cæsar was ignorant of the moon’s relation to tides until taught by bitter experience. He was taught only by the damage done to his ships in Britain. (“De Bello Gallico,” iv. 29). The Veneti, however, understood all these things, for Cæsar remarks, “quod et naves habent Veneti plurimas, quibus in Britanniam navigare consuerunt, et scientia atque usu nauticarum rerum reliquos antecedunt.” Further on he refers to the Bay of Biscay as the great, boisterous, open sea, “in magno impetu maris atque aperto.” (“De Bello Gallico,” book iii. chap. 8). It is to Pytheas (referred to previously) that Plutarch gives the credit of having detected the influence of the moon on tides.
The reader wishing to pursue the subject is referred to “Cæsar’s Conquest of Gaul,” by T. Rice Holmes. London, 1899.