298 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



It may here be said that the use of copperas for dyeing fast blacks 

 and browns of various shades as well as drabs and slate color, on cotton 

 and linen by means of decoctions of different barks, husks, and leaves 

 (such as those of the walnut, oak, maple, alder, beech, sumach, willow, 

 pine, etc.), is common in American households, from Kova Scotia to 

 Florida, as I am assured by several friends, and as has frequently been 

 published (compare, for example. Dr. F. E. Porcher's " Eesources of 

 the Southern Fields and Forests," Charleston, 1869, pp. 215-217). The 

 traditional "butternut" garments accredited to the Southern soldiers 

 during the war are said to have been dyed in this way. Porcher (p. 

 215) says: " Those who cannot obtain copperas use the water from one 

 of the mineral springs, which is strongly impregnated with iron." On 

 pages 217 and 241 he urges that " vinegar and rusty iron will often fix 

 colors without the aid of copperas"; and again, on page 302, he says, 

 that " blacksmith's dust may be used in place of copperas." Others have 

 suggested that in default of copperas, the mere act of boiling the cot- 

 ton and the dye-stuff in an iron pot, preferably a clean one (i e., new 

 ■and free from grease), may help to fix the color; and it is not impossible 

 that the influence of iron dissolved from the pot by acids in the dye- 

 stuff may have been felt to a certain extent in this sense, in some cases 

 to be alluded to directly, where fast colors are said to have been obtained 

 by means of barks without using any mordant ; besides copperas, alum 

 and blue vitriol are freely used in this country for various purposes in 

 domestic dyeing. 



Of late years catechu seems to have superseded bark in many locali- 

 ties. It is now freely used by fishermen both in Europe and America. 

 I have myself known of boatmen occasionally soaking their mooring 

 Ijainters in a solution of it, to preserve them from decay, and I have seen 

 simple catechu applied to the sails of boats also, to preserve them from 

 mildew. It was thought to serve a good purpose, though, unless pains 

 are taken to turn the sail frequently while it is drying. /. r., wliile the 

 catechu is undergoing oxidation, one side of the sail \\iil be darker than 

 the other. 



J. G. Nail ^ says herring nets are usually made of a strong two-thread 

 hempen twine, which undergoes a process of tanning in cutch, i. e., cate- 

 chu, a solution of which gives the twine a brown hue. In the autumn, 

 the surface of the Yarmouth Denes, covered over with nets spread out 

 to dry, has the appearance of a tan-pit. Oak and ash bark were for- 

 merly employed. Care has to be taken not to over-tan the nets, the 

 meshes of which would become contracted and too much hardened. The 

 nets are tanned in the beginning to preserve them from rotting, and the 

 process is repeated at the close of the fishery in order to cleanse them 

 thoroughly. A mackerel net will outlast several herring nets. They are 

 neither exposed to the havoc created by the dogfish, nor to the grease 



1 " Great Yarmouth," &c., London, 1866, pp. 290, 291, 293. 



