64 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



salted hides of their dead cows ; while they manage to 

 dispense with hemp altogether, by twisting thongs of 

 leather into ropes of considerable strength and length. 



The inefficient employment of leather for cables 

 was early superseded among some of the more 

 northern commercial nations by iron chains*. But 

 in the refined countries of the south, leathern thongs 

 had long prior to the time of Cresar given place to 

 the use of vegetable filaments, while the art of com- 

 bining them for strength was practised with consider- 

 able ingenuity. 



The cordage of the Romans was made of these 

 materials at the period of their invading Britain ; 

 and the Roman settlers in this country no doubt 

 soon applied our native rushes or junci to a similar 

 use. An evidence of this is retained in the term 

 junk, by which British sailors are wont even now to 

 distinguish old cables and worn-out ropes. 



Hemp, as being now the most used, as well as 

 being the most efficient and valuable material for 

 cordage, claims our first attention among those vege- 

 table substances which are applicable to the purpose. 

 But although its application is of the greatest con- 

 sequence, and its use the most extensive in the forma- 

 tion of cables, ropes, and cords of all descriptions, 

 the utility of its filaments is still more universal. 

 The sails and the ropes that form the rigging of a 

 man-of-war or a merchantman are alike made from 

 this plant. Hemp forms the material of every de- 

 scription of canvas, which is the corruption of its 

 Latin name cannabis. The Italians have very slightly 

 changed its name : they call it " canape." Cloth, 



* This invention of ancient times has recently been found far 

 superior to cables made of any vegetable fibres. Cables formed 

 of iron chains of a particular construction have within the last 

 twenty years been introduced with so much advantage as to have 

 become of almost universal adoption throughout the royal and 

 mercantile navy of Great Britain. 



