[3] PRESERVATION OF NETS AND SAILS. 297 



hours. They are then taken out, wrung, and dried. Catechu may be 

 substituted for the bark ; it acts quicker and gives a more solid color. 

 A dirty orange color is obtained by collecting a quantity of the [)lant 

 Chelidonmm Majus in the fields and simply rubbing the lines with the 

 green plant, so that they may be impregnated with the juice. The lines 

 are then dried and the process is complete. A green color is obtained 

 from young wheat plants chopped and pounded and boiled. The lines 

 are soaked in the liquor twenty-four hours. In addition to the forego- 

 ing, Walton is credited by de la Blanch^re with a method of dyeing 

 lines with walnut leaves, beer, and alum. 



I have myself made numerous inquiries of people likely to know 

 something about the subject, and I am greatly obliged to many persons 

 for the information they have given me and the pains they have taken 

 to procure information. The well-known ichthyologist, Capt. Nath. E. 

 Atwood, of Proviucetown, in particular, put me in i^ersoual communi- 

 cation with fishermen from Nova Scotia, who in their own country had 

 been accustomed from early youth to the barking of nets and sails. 

 The accounts given by these men were explicit and concordant, to the 

 effect that the bark of fir and spruce trees was collected in the woods 

 and boiled thoroughly in water. The nets having been placed in tubs, 

 the tan liquor was poured over them, the bark being thrown on top, and 

 the nets were left to soak in the liquor during twenty-four hours. This 

 operation was usually performed once a week, the common plan being 

 to put the nets in soak Saturday night and leave them soaking over 

 Sunday. These Nova Scotians were emphatic that nothing whatsoever 

 was mixed with the tan liquor, or put upon the sails in conjunction with 

 the tan. On the contrary, it was customary, they said, to use new sails 

 in the boats for a short time before coloring them, in order that any 

 grease or starch in or upon the sails might be washed out by rains and 

 worked out by use. So too, the small amount of oily matter which is 

 habitually put upon flax to make the fibers work more easily in the pro- 

 cess of manufacturing it into cloth is always washed out with soap and 

 water before the twine or canvas comes to be subjected to the tanning 

 process. They state that when the nets are in use the color soon washes 

 out of them, and that the process has to be frequently repeated on this 

 account. In their eyes, the purpose of the tan liquor seemed to be 

 rather to "kill the slime" which is left upon the nets when fish are cap- 

 tured than to permanently protect the twine from putrefactive influ- 

 ences. They said the same process was used for sails as for nets, only the 

 sails were not soaked so often ; they were dried after soaking. Imme- 

 diately after dipping the sails were very dark, but the color gradually 

 washed out of them. Nothing was ever added to fix the color, or, as 

 one of my informants put it, " to set the tan." This same man stated 

 that in the domestic economy of his locality the dyeing of linen articles 

 was habitually practiced, and that his people were accustomed to use 

 copperas and alum to set a variety of colors on household goods. 



