1770 MANUFACTURES 243 
warp or long threads are laid very close together, and each 
crossing of the woof is distant at least an inch from another. 
They have besides this several other kinds of cloth, and 
work borders to them all, but as to their manner of doing 
so I must confess myself totally ignorant. I never but 
once saw any of this work going forward; it was done in a 
kind of frame of the breadth of the cloth, across which it 
was spread, and the cross threads worked in by hand, which 
must be very tedious ; however, the workmanship sufficiently 
proves the workmen to be dexterous in their way. One 
notable point I must not forget, which is that to every 
garment of the better kind is fixed a bodkin, as if to remind 
the wearer that if it should be torn by any accident, no 
time should be lost before it is mended. 
Nets for fishing they make in the same manner as ours, 
of an amazing size; a seine seems to be the joint work of a 
whole town, and I suppose the joint property. Of these I 
think I have seen as large as ever I saw in Europe. Besides 
this they have fish pots and baskets worked with twigs, and 
another kind of net which they most generally make use of 
that I have never seen in any country but this. It is 
circular, seven or eight feet in diameter, and two or three 
deep; it is stretched by two or three hoops and open at 
the top for nearly, but not quite, its whole extent. On the 
bottom is fastened the bait, a little basket containing the 
guts, etc., of fish and sea ears, which are tied to different 
parts of the net. This is let down to the bottom where the 
fish are, and when enough are supposed to be gathered 
together, it is drawn up with a very gentle motion, by 
which means the fish are insensibly lifted from the bottom. 
In this manner I have seen them take vast numbers of fish, 
and indeed it is a most general way of fishing all over the 
coast. Their hooks are ill made, generally of bone or shell 
fastened to a piece of wood ; indeed, they seem to have little 
occasion for them, for with their nets they take fish much 
easier than they could with hooks. 
In tilling they excel, as people who are themselves to 
eat the fruit of their industry, and have little else to do but 
