ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK I47 



Francis Adrian Vanderkemp saw the Oneida Indians spearing eels 

 in this way, when he passed through Oneida lake in 1792. " They 

 are usually two or three in a canoe, one steersman, one who spears 

 in the bow, the third takes care of the fires, made from dry, easily 

 flaming wood, in a hollow piece of bark, first covered with sand." 

 Vanderkemp, p.72 



The French accounts of this early fishing on the St Lawrence 



assign two men to the canoe ; one to paddle and one to spear. The 



latter had " a bark torch attached to the prow of his vessel." Relation, 



* 



1634 



Nets were everywhere largely employed, and their stone sinkers 

 are well known. They had an ingenious way of using nets in winter 

 by passing them through holes in the ice. These nets were made 

 of twine prepared from wild hemp. But a few years ago the women 

 of the Five Nations prepared a fine thread of this material, by rolling 

 it on the thigh in the old way. It was everywhere used. On the 

 seashore nets were set at the mouths of bays and creeks at high tide, 

 and the fish were taken when the tide went out. These nets were 

 usually made by old men in New York, and a wooden needle was 

 probably used. The Onondaga name for net was ah-ah'-a, to see 

 through. The inner bark of the mulberry, elm and basswood was 

 used for twine and cordage by the Iroquois, but the wild hemp 

 seems to have been the favorite. Of this Kalm said: 



Apocynum cannabium was by the Swedes called Hemp 

 of the Indians, and grew plentifully in old corn grounds, in woods 

 on hills, and in high glades. The Swedes had given it the name of 

 Indian hemp, because the Indians formerly, and even now, apply it 

 to the same purposes as the Europeans do hemp ; for the stalk may 

 be divided into filaments, and is easily prepared. When the Indians 

 were yet settled among the Swedes, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 they made ropes of this apocynum. which the Swedes bought, and 

 employed as bridles, and for nets. These ropes were stronger, and 

 kept longer in water, than the common hemp. . . On my journey 

 through the country of the Iroquese. I saw the women employed 

 in manufacturing this hemp. They made use neither of spinning- 

 wheels nor distaffs, but rolled the filaments upon their bare thighs, 

 and made thread and strings of them, which they dyed red. yellow, 

 black, etc.. and afterwards worked them into stuffs, with a great deal 

 of ingenuity. Kalm, 1 '.412 



