FIBRES. 115 



tects his leg's and hands with boots and gloves, and 

 then twists the stem round a stick in order to obtain 

 a better purchase and power of pulling it up. The 

 time in which this work is most easily accomplished 

 is from the middle of May to that of June, which is 

 the season of its maturity. After being thus pulled 

 it is collected into bundles, which are formed into a 

 heap, and left during two days. On the third day it 

 is spread out and exposed to the heat of the sun until 

 it is dry, is then re-made into bundles which are placed 

 under shelter, and afterwards macerated in sea in 

 preference to fresh water, if the former can be 

 obtained. It is once more dried, again wetted, and 

 afterwards beaten before it is in a fit state to be used. 



In the Western Isles of Scotland, the mountain 

 Melic grass is manufactured into cord for fishing- 

 nets, which are remarkable for their durability. 



Besides these vegetable substances applicable to 

 the purposes of twisting into twine and ropes, there 

 are many others, which Dr. Roxburgh and other 

 writers have described as producing good and ser- 

 viceable fibres ; but it would be tedious farther to 

 enumerate all the various plants which are used in 

 different countries as materials for cordage ; it has 

 already been sufficiently shown how man, in every 

 stage of civilization, avails himself of the inexhaustible 

 gifts of nature so bounteously laid before him ; how 

 every part of vegetation bark, stalks, leaves, and 

 even the husks of fruit, are each in turn made to fur- 

 nish fibrous materials, highly useful, not only as 

 ministering to the wants and adding to the comforts 

 of life, but as calling forth ingenuity and invention in 

 their adaptation, and thus eminently assisting in the 

 progress of civilization. 



