306 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [12] 



tar from the South; it was only when their supply of the material was 

 cut oft' that they began to use coal tar.^ One of the Nova Scotian fish- 

 ermen with whom I talked about tanning nets laid a good deal of stress 

 on the large amount of "gum" there was in the fir bark employed. Both 

 he and Captain Atwood seemed to believe that this resinous matter 

 played an important part in preserving the nets. The Boston manu- 

 facturer of nets previously alluded to said that his firm formerly used 

 Wilmington tar, but now they used coal tar altogether. He urged that 

 tar makes the net stronger ; that it makes the twine more like wire ; 

 that it hardens the fibers and keeps them together so that the twine 

 does not fray. He had heard of tar and oil being used together, lin- 

 seed oil he supposed, and thought the purpose of the oil might be to 

 soften the tar. He remarked on having no facilities for drying (ageing) 

 the tarred nets in his Boston warehouse, and dwelt upon the fact that 

 freshly tarred nets are liable to " heat " and spoil. To prevent them 

 from suffering injury in this way it is customary to soak them in brine. 

 Moreover, when tarred nets are done up into bales salt is scattered upon 

 each layer of netting to hinder the package from heating. It appears 

 that it is now customary with the fishermen on the New England coast 

 to regularly salt down their nets when they are stowed away at the end 

 of the fishing season. In warm weather also the mackerel fishermen 

 are at pains to strew salt upon their nets, layer by layer, when they 

 stow them, even for brief periods, in the seine boats ; the idea being, of 

 course, in this case to check the putrefaction of the slime and gurry with 

 which the nets are soiled.'^ 



As to other methods of protecting sails from mildew, I learn that 

 bumettizing {i. e., the use of a dilute aqueous solution of chloride of 

 zinc) is sometimes practiced in this vicinity. I was assured by the cap- 

 tain of a sea-going schooner that once when a suit of his vessel's sails 

 seemed ruined with mildew he had them dipped, with the result that 

 they came out white and clean, and wore well for three years. One prac- 

 tice is to spread out the sails of small vessels on a beach and wash them 

 over with a mixture of whitewash and brine. Some people appear to 

 use plain whitewash. An objection is urged, however, to the use of lime 

 that it tends to rot the canvas, and there is probably some risk that in 



1 It is noticeable that our fishermen habitually put an extra allowance of tar on 

 cordage that is to be kept under water. The cables of Bank fishermen, whether made 

 of hemp or of manilla hemp, are commonly thoroughly tarred, and so are the buoy 

 ropes of lobster pots and of sunken moorings. 



2 The modicum of the truth in the old conception that "putrescent bodies exert an 

 action on complex organizations which by themselves are not putrescent," is well 

 illustrated by a case like this. A parcel of microdemes having established a satisfac- 

 tory residence upon the animal matter with which a net is soiled, soon find the cellu- 

 lose of the twine a useful addition to their food. It serves in some sort as a diluent 

 of the highly nitrogenized ration which the slime supplies. In other words, some of 

 the constituents of the cellulose of the fiber are involved in the reactions which occur 

 during the fermentation, and the integrity of the twine suffers accordingly. 



