296 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES, [2] 



in William Lewis's " Philosophical Commerce of the Arts," London, 

 1763, 3, 429, it is stated that fishing nets receive a pretty durable 

 stain from soaking in astringents. Chomel's ' ' Dictionnaire oeconomiqne," 

 Paris, 1767, SS, 88, directs that nets may be colored by boiling them in 

 tan liquor, or in a decoction of the bark of walnut roots ; or the net may 

 be rubbed with celandine or young wheat when a yellow or green color 

 is wanted. So, too, in Chambers's Cyclof)8edia, Dublin, 1782, vol. 3, 

 article Net (in Fowling). Similar directions will be fouud in several of 

 the earlier dictionaries of rural affairs, and in many old books relating 

 to country sports, such as hunting and fishing. In the " Dictionnaire de 

 Marine," by Willaumez, Paris, 1825, p. 547, it is said that French fisher- 

 men soak their sails in a decoction of oak bark and red ochre to preserve 

 them. James Anderson, in his " Account of the Hebrides and West 

 Coast of Scotland," Edinburgh, 1785, pp. 336, 344, says that nets and 

 sails are there tanned by simply soaking them in hot tan liquor from 

 oak bark. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, article Net, p. 105 of the edi- 

 tion of 1842, says the most usual color given to nets is the russet, which 

 is obtained by plunging the net into a tanner's pit and letting it lie there 

 till it be sufficiently tinged ; this is of a double service to the net, since 

 it preserves the thread as well as alters the color. Good, in Dingler's 

 Polytechnisches Journal, 1820, S, 162, explains how he tans nets and 

 sails by boiling them in tan liquor ; and the same account is given in C. 

 Mackenzie's " One Thousand Experiments in Chemistry," London, 

 1821, p. 508. Millett, Polytechnisches Centrallblatt, 1847, p. 1285, cited 

 in Eisner's Mittheilungen, 1, 124, says fishermen merely soak their 

 nets in hot tan liquor. He himself put some linen thus treated in 

 a damp cellar and kept it for years. Wimmer, Dingler's Polytech- 

 nisches Journal, 121, 372, repeated Millett's experiment with suc- 

 cess. H. de la Blanch^re, in his " Nouveau Dictionnaire g^n^ral des 

 P^ches," Paris, 1868, p. 763, says nets are tanned to hinder them from 

 rotting. A quantity of ground oak bark is boiled for a couple of hours 

 in rain water, and the still boiling liquor is poured upon the dry clean 

 net, which has been placed in a tub. The net is well kneaded in the 

 liquor and turned several times during the day. It is then left to soak 

 during thirty-six or forty hours; finally it is withdrawn from the liquor 

 and dried. The operation is repeated once a year. It has become more 

 and more common to use catechu for tanning sea nets, and to-day most 

 of them are preserved with this material. Being much richer in tannin 

 than oak bark, it tans the nets more strongly and preserves them better. 

 The operation is performed in the same way by means of hot water sat- 

 urated with catechu, often admixed with oak bark to lower the price a 

 little. The tanning of lines, also, especially for sea fishing, is an im- 

 portant operation, both because they last longer and because they are 

 less visible. A dead-leaf color is obtained by chopping walnut bark or 

 oak bark fine and boiling the fragments one hour in water. The lines 

 are placed in the vessel among the bark and left to soak twenty-four 



