4 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



Implements used as Ice- picks (:^). — Though the savage men who formed the 

 simple stone instruments under notice depended for subsistence on the chase and, 

 presumably, on fishing, we are in the dark as to the methods employed by them 

 in these pui'suits. The quaternai'y beds have yielded no objects directly referable 

 to fishing; yet it has been thought that some of the thick-handled pointed flint 

 implements may haA^e been used for making holes in the ice, in order to catch 

 fish or aquatic mammals frequenting the great rivers at that time. In the 

 arctic regions, it is known, the natives dig holes in the ice, and patiently wait for 

 hours at the apertures, until the seals, coming to the sui'face to breathe, can be 

 struck and secured for food. Amphibious animals, perhaps, ascended the quater- 

 naiy rivers, and were captured as stated.'-' 



I give in Fig. 1 on page 3 a representation of a drift-implement from Saint- 

 Acheul, near Amiens, which may have served as an ice-pick. The lower part, 

 or handle, as will be seen, shows the unaltered surface of the chalk-flint ; the 

 worked portion is somewhat chisel -shaped. It belongs to the series of European 

 drift-implements exhibited in the United States National Museum. 



CAVES AND ROCK-SHELTERS. 



Retreats of Man during the lieindeer-period. — JNIore definite results bearing 

 upon the condition of the early inhabitants of Europe have been obtained of late 

 years by the careful exjDloration of caves in England, France, Belgium, Germany, 

 Switzerland, and other European countries. The caves to which I shall refer 

 were resorted to by palaeolithic man,-]- who has left in them such traces of his 

 occupancy as enable us to form a more or less distinct view of his mode of life. 

 Explorations of these early sheltering-places of man, I may state, are carried 

 on with great energy in Europe, and already have given rise to a literature of 

 considerable extent. The results, however, present only local diflfercnces, while, 

 on the whole, the conclusions arrived at are the same, namely, that in times 

 anteceding any historical record or tradition, tribes of savage men lived in cer- 

 tain parts of Europe contemporaneously with various .species of animals, which 

 have either become extinct, or have migrated to other parts of Europe, or even to 

 other continents. However, as it is not my purpose to give an account of cave- 

 researches in Europe, but of prehistoric fishing, my observations will chiefly 

 refer to those caves which have furnished the most abundant material for illus- 

 trating the latter subject. Among them a group situated in the valley of the 



* Sauvage (Dr. H. E.) : On Fishing during the Eeindeer-Period ; Eeliqiiisc Aquitanicie ; I, p. 219. Tlie editor 

 of this work, Professor T. R. Jones, adds in a note : " Some roughly dressed flints found in the quaternary gravels 

 may have been 'sinkers' and imitation baits, such as the Eskimos use in fishing and angling." — It is questionable 

 whether the drift-men were far enough advanced to resort to such devices. 



f Some caves in Europe undoubtedly served as human habitations in neolithic times. 



