APPEND.] CRAUATA DE REDE. 



347 



cover all the superficies of the fruit. I took its specific 

 name of SagenaHa, from the circumstance of its fibres 

 being used by fishermen for making their nets. 



The fibre of the plant varies in length from three to 

 eight feet, according to the greater or less fertility of 

 the land ; in dry land it is short, fine, and soft ; in good 

 land, it is longer, but likewise thicker and rough ; the 

 strength of it is great, the following fact proving that 

 this is the case. Upon the wharf of the city of Paraiba, 

 there is a rope made of this fibre, which has been in 

 use during many years, for the purpose of embarking 

 the bales (of manufactured goods, I suppose) and chests 

 of sugar : with the same rope the anchors of a line of 

 battle ship were embarked, which had been left at Pa- 

 raiba by the (charrua) ship Aguia: they were intended 

 for Bahia, and could not be raised by hempen cables of 

 greater diameter. 



It is with difficulty that this kind of fibre becomes 

 white by the common manner of bleaching, which pro- 

 ceeds from a certain natural varnish (if I may be allowed 

 so to call it) with which the surface is covered ; it does 

 not rot so easily as other kinds of fibre, when soaked 

 in water. From this property the fishermen prefer it 

 for their nets ; but notwithstanding the natural varnish 

 of its coloured parts, the fishermen increase its power 

 to resist the water, by carbonising (if I may be allowed 

 so to say) the threads of their nets with astringents 

 which they obtain from various plants; such as the 

 bark of the aroeira and of the coipuna, and for this 

 purpose the nets are steeped for some time in a de- 

 coction or infusion of these barks, as is practised in 

 tanning. 



