38 FISHES. 



effective, which cannot be classed under either 

 of the three heads which we have named, being 

 neither net, spear, nor hook. The last-named, 

 however, in some form or other, is the principal 

 device employed, and, strange as it may appear, 

 notwithstanding all the superiority in art, and all 

 the advantage of metals possessed by Europeans, 

 the native-made hooks are preferred, as far more 

 effective than ours. Many of them are really 

 beautiful productions, and, when we consider their 

 total want of metallic tools, excite our astonish- 

 ment at the skill and ingenuity of the manufac- 

 turers. Our hooks are all made on one pattern, 

 however varying in size ; but the forms of theirs 

 are exceedingly various, and made of different 

 substances, viz., wood, shell, and bone. " The 

 hooks made with wood are curious ; some are 

 exceedingly small, not more than two or three 

 inches in length, but remarkably strong ; others 

 are large. The wooden hooks are never barbed, 

 but simply pointed, usually curved inwards at 

 the point, but sometimes standing out very wide, 

 occasionally armed at the point with a piece of 

 bone. The best are hooks ingeniously made of 

 the small roots of the aito-tree, or iron-wood 

 {Casuarina). In selecting a root for this purpose, 

 they choose one partially exposed, and growing 

 by the side of a bank, preferring such as are free 

 from knots and other excrescences. The root 

 is twisted into the shape they wish the future 

 hook to assume, and allowed to grow till it has 

 reached a size large enough to allow of the out- 

 side or soft parts being removed, and a sufficiency 

 remaining to form the hook. Some hooks thus 

 prepared are not much thicker than a quill, and 



