PREFACE 



This volume should have been written by one not only acquainted with the 

 details of prehistoric archaeology, but also well informed regarding all matters 

 pertaining to fishing as practised in our time. Unfortunately, I cannot lay 

 claim to any knowledge of the piscatorial art;' for, after a single unsuccessful 

 trial in angling, made in the days of my boyhood, I gave up all further attempts, 

 and thus it happened that I never caught a fish in my life, either with hook or 

 net. I should add that, owing to more pressing occupations, this want of prac- 

 tical experience has not in any way been supplemented by the study of works 

 treating of fishing; and, as a consequence, many points doubtless have escaped 

 my notice, which would have elicited comments on the part of an expert. Thus, 

 in describing the ancient fish-hooks, he would have conjectured, from their form 

 and size, what sj^ecies of fishes Avere caught with them; the character of net- 

 sinkers, perhaps, would have suggested to him that of the nets; and so in other 

 instances. Yet, I must not omit to state that, while composing this work, I 

 derived great advantage from being placed in circumstances of close association 

 with some members of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries ; for 

 these gentlemen assisted me with great readiness whenever I had occasion to 

 appeal to their knowledge of the details of fishing. 



In treating of prehistoric fishing in Europe, I have used all the literary 

 material within my reach ; but certain data relating to the subject have 

 doubtless been omitted — for the simple reason that the writings containing 

 them were not at my disposal. Critical readers in Euroj^e will bear this in 

 mind.* If the work had been exclusively designed for the initiated, I might 



* After the text of the first part of this work had been electrotyped, I had occasion to examine a pamphlet 

 by Professor C. Grewingk, of Dorpat, entitled " Geologic und Archaeologie des Mergellagers von Kunda in 

 Estland " (Dorpat, 1882). The author describes and figures a number of neolithic bone harpoon-heads extracted 

 from marl. I would have reproduced his illustrations, if it had not been too late. I may say, however, that 

 they present types similar to the European forms brought to the reader's notice in the first part of this volume. 



The portion of the second part in which North American fish-hooks are described, also was electrotyped, 

 ■when a short article by Miss Margarette W. Brooks, relative to bone fish-hooks found in a shell-heap near Narra- 



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