28 



PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



About eight years ago, Messrs. Louis Lartet* and Chaplain Duparc 

 published in " Materiaux pour I'Histoire Primitive et Naturelle de I'Homme " 

 an account of their exploration of the Duruthy Grotto, near Sorde, a place 

 situated not very far from Peyrehorade, Department of Landes (Southwestern 

 France). They discovered in the lowest deposit of the grotto — evidently a place 



Fig. 33. — Figure of a pike eDgraved on a drilled bear's tooth. Duruthy Grotto. 



resorted to at different times — about fifty perforated and engraved canine teeth 

 of the bear and lion, doubtless trophies of the chase, which lay near a crushed 

 human .skull and bones, perhaps the remains of a savage hunter, whose person 

 they once may have adorned. On one of these teeth, that of a bear, is traced 

 the outline of a fish, which has been pronounced a pike by persons versed in 

 ichthyology. Fig. 33, reproduced from "Materiaux,"! represents the incised 

 bear's tooth. 



There is in the collection of the Marquis de Vibraye a reindeer-jaw from 



Fig. 34. — Outline of a fish {iSqualius ?) on a reindeer-jaw. Laugerie Basse. 



Laugerie Basse, upon which is engraved the outline of. a fish, supposed to be 

 intended for a SquaUus. Fig. 34 is a copy of the sketch.J 



M. Elie Massenat found at Laugerie Basse several pieces of reindeer-horn 

 bearing fish-designs, which are figured on Plates I and II in Vol. XII (1877) of 

 " Materiaux." The tracings represented on the first plate are rather rude, not 

 permitting the recognition of a species ; but that on the second plate is believed 

 to be intended for a cyprinoid fish. I refrain from copying the figures, the 

 plates being marked EeproducUon interdite. 



* Son of M. Edouard Lartet. 

 t Vol. IX, 1874, p. 142, Fig. 37. 

 J Keliquiio AquitanicK; I, p. 225. 



