2 20 on netile yarn. -^"S' ^4 



Irious among these people having tried to make a coarse 

 cloth from the nettles they gathered in waste corners, spun 

 it into a coarse kind of yarn, upon the rock, and got it 

 ivoven into a slack kind of cloth, somewhat like biscuit 

 Lac;5, which they employed for transporting their oysters-. 

 It was soon discovered that these bags lasted much long- 

 er than others of the same kind made of hemp. This in- 

 duced others fo try the same experiment. It succeeded 

 equally well ; and it is found to be such a saving plan, that 

 a manufacture of this sort has been for some time carried 

 on among these industrious people, for their own use on- 

 ly, to their great emolument. 



The fact being thus ascertained, my informant thinks 

 that if the nettle were cultivated in considerable quan- 

 tities, and watered and drcfsed upon a large scale, it might 

 be employed with great advantage for many useful nati- 

 . onal purposes j such as for fiihing nets, fiihmg lines, and sail 

 cloth j all of which are articles of great importance to inis 

 nition j and being necefsarily exposed to wet, when made 

 of hemp or flax, are found to be of a very perilhable na- 

 l;'.re; In the east Indies and south seas, they have fiih- 

 ing lines, made of a grafs that grows in those climates, 

 which are not only stronger of the same thicknefs than any 

 that v#e can m3ke, but infinitely more durable. Have any 

 attempts been made to see if this grafs could be reared ei- 

 ther in Earope or the west Indies ? I have heard of none. 

 Till we obtain it, the nettle, which we know prospers a- 

 bundantly here, "promises to be a very useful suostitute for 

 hemp in these manufactures. 



Eut anoihcr important use to which even the coarsc.t 

 parts of this manufacture mi^ht be applied, is the caulk- 

 ing of fliips. It is vie',1 known, as he afsures me, that 

 either hemp or flax, when employed as the core thread in 

 'first caulking of vefsels. so quickly rots, as to become the 



