th bitumen. Boats of this shape are still used on these
rivers, and boats of analogous construction are employed in crossing the
rivers of India, in which the current is not rapid. Nor have methods of
making much changed. The strokes employed in the construction of
basket-work found in Etruscan tombs and now exhibited in the Museo Etrusco
at Florence, and in similar articles discovered in Egyptian tombs, are the
same as those used by the English basket-maker to-day. General Pitt-Rivers,
on comparing the remains excavated near Lewes with a modern hamper in his
possession, found the method to be identical.

Since about the middle of the 19th century the character of basket-work in
England has been greatly modified. The old English cradle, reticule, and
other small domestic wares, have been driven out of the market by cheap
goods made on the continent of Europe, and the coarse brown osier packing
and hampers have been largely superseded by rough casks and cases made from
cheap imported timber. This loss has, however, been more than
counterbalanced by the production of work of a higher class, such as finely
made chairs, tables, lounges and other articles of furniture; luncheon and
tea-baskets and similar requisites of travel. In addition to the foregoing
the chief categories of English manufacture are: vegetable and fruit
baskets, transit and travelling hampers, laundry and linen baskets,
partition baskets for wine, and protective wicker cases for fragile ware
such as glass carboys, stone and other bottles. Wicker shields or cases
made from cane pith, for the protection of shells, have been introduced by
the English military authorities. Some evidence of the above-mentioned
developments is afforded by a comparison of the wages lists of the London
Union of Journeymen Basketmakers issued in 1865 and in 1896. The former
consists of 87 printed pages; the latter of 144 pages, and these more
closely set.

No machinery is used in basket-making. A considerable training and natural
aptitude go to form the expert workman, for the ultimate perfection of
shape and beauty of texture depend upon the more or less perfect conception
of form in the [v.03 p.0482] craftsman's mind and on his power to impress
it on a recalcitrant material. In England at least, he rarely uses a mould;
every stroke made has a permanent effect on the symmetry of the whole work
and no subsequent pressure will alter it. Wages in London vary from 25s. to
50s. per we