truction,
but probably was used for carrying. The bag is tied with the same
element square knot; the mesh size is approximately 2.4 cm. Both ends of
this net, however, are gathered together. The net beginning is a small
circular piece of cord. Four loops are cast onto this; the number of
working loops is increased to 16 in the next course by the method
illustrated in figure 4. The square-knot tying begins with the next
course.

At the lower end, the meshes are gathered together with a hitch (fig.
6). This may have been put through the loops at what would have been the
top of the bag to hold it shut. This would serve as a supplementary
tying cord rather than being part of the structure of the net.

This fragmentary net has one notably unique feature. Feathers,
presumably decorative, were caught, not in the knots themselves, but
between them (fig. 7). The knot used is identical to the "marline spike
hitch" described by Graumont and Hensel (1946, p. 69; fig. 101; pl. 29).
This type of knot--more properly called a hitch--has not been reported
elsewhere among the methods of attaching feathers. As can be seen in the
reconstruction, the feather serves to hold the hitch, yet if the cord
were to be pulled tightly around it, the feather could be removed only
with difficulty. It remains puzzling that the carrying net, rather than
the hairnets, should be so decorated.

[Illustration: Fig. 7. Detail showing insertion of feathers in hitches
of carrying net.]

Turning to other archaeological examples of nets from the peninsula, we
learn that specimens of square-knot netting have been found to the south
in the central region from Mulege to Comondu. Caves to the west of
Mulege have yielded two fragments of square-knot netting (Massey, MS
2). Other examples derive from Caguama and Metate caves between Comondu
and Loreto. In Metate Cave there was a single complete carrying net
(Massey and Tuohy, MS). Elsewhere on the peninsula little is known of
them except for the southern Cape Region, where netting was in the
distinct technique of lark's-head knotting (Massey, MS 1).

On the ethnographic level, carrying nets were widely used by Indians
of western North America from Canada to Mexico, and again in Central
America. As part of this general distribution they were used throughout
the peninsula (Driver and Massey, 1957, pp. 274, 276, map 78).

Among the Lower Californians nets were used for carrying suitable
gathered products, and als