The skins of other game were also used as clothing. Bear, otter, raccoon, beaver, fox and cat skins are mentioned as having been used, although the particulars of their preparation are not recorded.[143] Sometimes the skins of animals not available in the immediate vicinity were traded for from neighboring tribes.[144] The skins of all these animals, including deer, were used also for bedding.[145] Leather was used in the manufacture of bags for carrying fire lighting equipment, tobacco, and parched corn meal. The latter type is described as being long and narrow and carried either slung on the back or tied around the waist.[146] Contemporary observers do not mention any further uses of leather by the Wampanoags. Among several groups of Indians, such as those who lived by hunting on the Great Plains, leather served not only for clothing, but as the only material available for housing and cordage. Living as they did in the woodlands, the Wampanoags had available a variety of suitable plant material which they used for various kinds of basketry and cordage that served the multitude of purposes served by leather in other regions. Thus among the Wampanoags leather might have been used as the lashings to hold the framing of houses together, or plant fiber might have served this purpose, or both. Such alternatives were available, but it is not known exactly what use the Wampanoags made of them. =Cordage, Netting, Basketry=: The Wampanoags used the stems and fibers of several plants for containers, house coverings, nets, clothing, etc.[147] Among the plants used were: bulrushes, bent grass (perhaps also other types of grasses), maize husks, “silk grass”, wild hemp (also called Indian hemp and dogbane—_Apocynum cannabenum_), flag leaves, basswood fiber, and the bast of other trees with fine inner bark, such as the linden and slippery elm.[148] Most cordage was made from wild hemp. Basically, the manufacture of cordage consisted of removing the long fibers from the stems of the plant and joining these by twisting and braiding until the desired thickness and length of cord was obtained. The Indians appeared quite skillful in this craft: “... their cordage is so even, soft, and smooth, that it looks more like silke than hempe....”[149] Wild hemp cordage was used in several ways. It was used to make fishing lines.[150] It was also used for tying hooks onto these lines.[151] Hemp cordage was looped into fishnets.[152] One of these, used for sturgeon, is described as being 30 to 40 feet in length.[153] Large storage bags were made out of this material, in a weaving technique known as twining. These were flat and rectangular in shape; their capacity was five or six bushels. They were used for storing food both in the underground pits and inside the houses.[154] Similar bags were also made out of bast fiber.[155]