LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



fish-hooks and harpoon-heads of bone and 

 horn, fragments of nets, and certain per- 

 forated stone disks, which may have served 

 as line or net sinkers. Similar implements 

 have been found at other places in Europe. 

 Fish-hooks of bronze also have been found 

 on the sites of the lake-villages. Dr. Rau 

 gives figures of about thirty bronze hooks. 

 They vary much in form and size ; a part 

 only are barbed, but nearly all are bent 

 over at the top to form an eye for the at- 

 tachment of the line. 



The second part of the memoir treats of 

 American aboriginal fishing, and is based 

 on the materials contained in the archaeo- 

 logical division of the National Museum, of 

 which division Dr. Rau has charge. Some 

 of the hooks of aboriginal manufacture are 

 similar in general form to ordinary modern 

 fish-hooks, but only one regularly barbed 

 specimen is known to the author. It was 

 found in Madison County, New York, and 

 is thought to have been made since 1600, 

 and in imitation of the hooks brought to 

 this country by Europeans. The hooks of 

 bone and shell found in California are pe- 

 culiar. The curved point approaches so 

 closely to the shank that some persons have 

 doubted their ever being used as fishing im- 

 plements. It would probably be impossible 

 to hook fish with hooks of this shape, but 

 just such hooks have been brought from 

 Pacific islands by travelers, who report that 

 the natives are very successful with them 

 in taking fish that bolt the hook instead of 

 nibbling at it. No bait is used, as the hook 

 itself looks somewhat like a worm. Twenty- 

 eight dart-heads of bone and horn are here 

 figured, most of which the author believes 

 were armatures for fishing implements. 

 Twenty of them have barbs on one side 

 only, while the others are barbed on both 

 sides. Several dart-heads of copper, each 

 of which has a single barb, are in the col- 

 lection of the State Historical Society of 

 Wisconsin. A large number of grooved, 

 notched, or perforated stones have been 

 found, which must have been used as sink- 

 ers for fish-lines and nets. Similar stones 

 are used as sinkers by both Indian and 

 white fishermen to-day. Two specimens of 

 copper sinkers have come within the knowl- 

 edge of the author. Stone carvings and 

 pottery representing fishes have also been 



found in this country. The evidence that 

 the American aborigines used moUusks as 

 food is abundant; great heaps of oyster, 

 clam, mussel, and other shells are found 

 along our sea-coasts and river-banks. In- 

 termingled with these shells are bones of 

 various animals, implements, fragments of 

 pottery, and vestiges of fireplaces. Dr. Rau 

 appends to this memoir fifty-eight pages 

 of extracts from various writings of the 

 last four centuries, in which reference is 

 made to aboriginal fishing in North Ameri- 

 ca, and some notices of fishing implements 

 and fish representations discovered south of 

 Mexico. The text is illustrated by four hun- 

 dred and five figures. 



Town Geology : The Lesson of the Phila- 

 delphia Rocks. Studies of Nature 

 along the Highways and among the 

 Byways of a Metropolitan Town. By 

 Angelo Heilprin, Professor of Inver- 

 tebrate Paleontology at, and Curator-in- 

 charge of, the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: 

 Published by the Author. Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, 1885. Pp. 152, with 

 Seven Plates. 



Not only from the simple to the com- 

 plex, and from the concrete to the abstract, 

 but from the immediate to the remote, lie 

 the true directions of mental movement in 

 the growth of knowledge and in rational 

 study. To begin where there is much fa- 

 miliarity, some knowledge, and more or less 

 curiosity and interest, and pass on to that 

 which is remoter and deeper, is the true meth- 

 od. But, strange to say, the reverse method 

 is that usually pursued. Instead of start- 

 ing with the known and building upon it, 

 the custom is to begin with the distant and 

 unknown, and often, indeed, stay there so 

 long that the knowledge acquired in many 

 cases never becomes a reality at all. Geol- 

 ogy, particularly, is liable to be pursued in 

 this way, general ideas being accumulated 

 from the books, with little application to 

 facts within the limit of common experience. 

 The present volume is an admirable ex- 

 emplification of the true method of geolog- 

 ical study. The author takes up the facts 

 with which all Philadelphians are familiar, 

 and in which they may be therefore assumed 

 to have a certain degree of interest, and 

 connects them in a very simple and instruc- 

 tive way with the great body of geological 



