The same author thus describes the arts of the carpen ter, sawyer, black smith, goldsmith, and shoemaker, as they are carried on in India : " The Indian carpenter knows no other tools than the plane, chissel, the wimbol, a hammer, and a kind of hatch et. The earth serves him for a shop-board, and his foot for a hold-fast; but they are a month in performing what our workmen will do in three days. It is to no purpose shewing them the most expeditious and easy way of saw ing wood ; they had rather keep to the imperfect manner they received from their fathers, than adopt a new one more commodious.
" The sawyer places his wood between two joists fixed in the ground ; and, sitting carefully on a little bench, em ploys three days, with one saw, to make a plank, which would take our people an hour's work.
" The blacksmith always carries his tools with him, his forge, and his little furnace ; working wherever he is em ployed. He sets up his forge before the house of the per son who calls him, and, with the dirt of the place, makes a little wall, before which he places his hearth. Behind the wall are two leather bellows, which the apprentice keeps going, by alternately pressing the top. In this man ner the fire is kept up. A stone serves for an anvil, and his whole apparatus consists of a pair of pincers, a ham mer, a mallet, and a file.
" The productions of the goldsmith announce, in eve7 shape, the want of tools. Like the Chinese, they have not as yet arrived at the art of polishing gold or silver, or to work the gold in different colours. Yet we have their fili gree work in esteem ; that is, indeed, only a work of pa tience. The Indian goldsmith carries his workshop with him wherever he is sent for. His furnace is an earthen pot, an iron pipe serves him for a bellows, and a pair of pincers, a hammer, a file, and a sm II mallet. are all his tools. He makes his crucible on the spot with clay, mix ed with charcoal and cow-dung ; which gives a solidity to the crucible that prevents its breaking in the fire. One shilling are the wages of the master and his servant for a whole day.
" The shoemaker is of the most despicable caste, and is also the poorest of all the artisans. He has no other tools than an awl and knife ; no shop for leather, or lasts. When a pair of shoes are wanted, the money must be ad vanced, and with this money he buys a sheep's skin, which he prepares on the same day, and on the morrow brings the shoes. From the shoemakers working in leather, and eating meat, they are held in the greatest contempt by the other Indians, who esteem them the lowest order of men. Their huts are in separate quarters, out of the towns and villages ; and in the European settlements they perform the office of executioners." Sonnerat, xi. 126-8.
Fishing, as a source of trade, is little followed in Hin dostan; there is, however, an extensive fishery on the Gulf of Cutch ; the fish are dried, and exported on ca mels and bullocks to the interior. The natives here are
also employed in the pearl fishery ; but this kind of fishery is carried on to the greatest extent on the shores of the south-eastern extremity of India, particularly at Tutico Fin, and six other villages in the district of Tinnevel ly. There are two fishing seasons in the year ; one in March and April, and the other in August and September. The pearls are disposed of at a fair that is held immedi ately after the termination of each fishing season ; they are much inferior to those procured in Ceylon, being dis figured by a blue or greenish tinge Near Bombay, fish stakes, formed of the trunks of the cocoa-nut tree, are laid down at the beginning of the fair season, in eight or nine fathoms water ; they are taken up before the south west monsoon commences. They are fixed by means of boats filled with water, attached to them when the tide is low ; thus, of course, they are sunk to the bottom : and they are raised by a similar process, empty boats being at tached to them, by means of which they are lifted up at the flowing of the tide.
The internal trade of India is conducted by boats, land carriers, travelling merchants, and at fairs. The boats which are used on the Ganges, and its tributary streams, are of various sizes and constructions ; from Patna to Cal cutta, where the navigation resembles that of the sea, both from the width of the river, and the storms which frequent ly arise, it is necessary to employ large and strong boats, or rather ships of upwards of 100 tons ; in the higher parts of the river, the boats are made either low and deep, or flat, and clinker built. Between Calcutta and the sea, among the shallows, the boats are made without keel. Those which are used in the Indus are flat-bottomed, with square heads and sterns, low forward, high abaft, and draw ing only a few inches water ; oars are seldom employed, but they are either dragged by men, or pushed along with poles ; when the wind admits it, sails are used. The ma terials of which these boats are constructed are very few, simple, and cheap ; and the boatmen scarcely receive any wages, except what will purchase them a little salt, tobac co, and clothing ; grain is .supplied them for food. The average rate of travelling, with and against the current, may be reckoned 25 miles a-day. By the inland naviga tion in Hindustan Proper, salt, grain, cotton, and manufac tured articles, are interchanged. It is said that the whole number of boatmen employed in the rivers of Bengal and Bahr are nearly 300,000 ; most of these are also labourers in husbandry, or fishermen.