[11] PRESEEVATION OF NETS AND SAILS. 305 



the sail is fit for use. The quantity of tar and butter above given is 

 sufficient for one of their fishing boats, which are some 6 or 8 tons bur- 

 den. Great inii)ortance is attached both to the rubbing-in and the dry- 

 ing. In connection with these stories I could but recall the fact that 

 the old French name of tarred cloth was toile grasse. 



In this category may be mentioned the Dutch method of tanning cot- 

 ton herring nets, as described by Captain Collins,^ and stated by him 

 to be " thought better than any other by these foreign fishermen." The 

 tan is made by boiling catechu in water, in the proportion of 1 pound 

 of the former to 2J gallons of the latter. When it is sufficiently strong 

 the nets are soaked in it twenty-four hours and then dried. They are 

 tanned and dried three times, and then soaked in linseed oil. A pound 

 of oil is provided for each pouud of net, and the nets are allowed to re- 

 main in the oil as long as any of it will be absorbed. They are then 

 well drained and spread on the ground to dry, after which the process 

 is completed by tanning them once more. NalP says a strong three- 

 twist cotton cord procured from Musselburgh has lately been introduced 

 as an experiment. It is prepared by steeping in a mixture of linseed 

 oil and varnish, and is then squeezed through rollers. This renders it 

 stiff and smooth as wire when dried. It is afterwards subjected to the 

 tanning process. In addition to hempen twine, a coarse Persian silk 

 was employed in the netting used in the Dutch fisheries of the seven- 

 teenth century, as more durable. It was slightly pitched or exposed 

 to the smoke of burning ash to acquire a dark color and render it less 

 perceptible by the fish. 



There is a process of varnishing the silken lines used by jdeasure fish- 

 ermen lor the purpose of keeping them dry and reelable that differs 

 from the foregoing. As described by de la Blanchere, in his Dictionary, 

 page 765, the lines may either be boiled in a drying oil, or, better, a small 

 quantity of drying oil with which some white and green paint has been 

 mixed may be carefully rubbed upon and into the stretched line. A 

 second coating of the varnish is laid on when the first has become dry, 

 and the operation is repeated at intervals until the wished-for stiffness 

 and impermeability have been obtained. De la Blanchere remarks, 

 also, that nets are sometimes treated with tars obtained from coal, and 

 that the fishermen commend coal tar for this purpose in certain cases, 

 in spite of the black color and the penetrating odor it imparts to the 

 nets. John M. MitchelF rej)orts that Irish nets are most frequently 

 tarred instead of being barked. Tarred nets, he says, are not so dura- 

 ble ; in direct opposition to which statement I found a strong feeling at 

 Provincetown in favor of tar, as being a much better preservative of 

 nets than tan. Captain Atwood was decidedly of this opinion. Until 

 the war of the rebellion his townspeople were accustomed to use pine 



' BuUetiu of U. S. Fish Commission, 1881, p. 8. 



*In his " Great Yarmouth," &c., London, 1866, p. 291, and 290 note. 

 3In hia book "The Herring," Edinburgh, 1864, p. 99. 

 S. Mis. 46 20 



