56 



PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



The original of Fig. G2 is cliaracterized by Dr. Gross as " a large harpoon, nearly 

 eight and three-fourths inches long ; it has eleven barbs, is perforated at the 

 base, and has been skillfull}^ made out of a fragment of stag's horn."* The barbs 

 are rather blunt. Fig. 63 represents a very fine specimen, thus described by 

 Dr. Gross in " Materiaux " : "A large harpoon of deer-horn, twenty-two centi- 

 meters in length, provided with six very sharp barbs, and perforated at the base 

 for being fastened to a wooden shaft by means of a peg {cheville)."-\- Dr. Gross, 

 consequently, does not regard these harpoon-heads as detachable armatures. 

 If the perforations had served for receiving a line they probably would not have 

 been placed so near the lower end. Fig. 64 shows a shorter harpoon-head of 

 similar character, with only one barb on each side. A deer-horn harpoon-head 

 resembling very much the original of Fig. 64, and nearly of the same length, is 

 preserved in the Peabody Museum. It was found at Saint-Aubin, and belonged 

 to the Clement collection. 



It may be assumed that one of the methods employed by the lake-people 

 for obtaining fish was that of shooting them with arrows — barbed points of bone, 

 horn, and stone, well suited to form the armatures of such arrows, having been 

 found on the sites of the ancient lake-villages. 



Fio. 05.— Saint-Aubin. Fig. GC— Robenhaiisen. Fig. G7.— Bodio. 



Figs. 65-67. — Arrow-heads of horn and flint. 



An arrow-head from Saint-Aubin, consisting of stag-horn, and according 

 to the illustration, still connected with a portion of the shaft, is represented by 

 Fig. 65.J It has only one barb, and is certainly of a shape suggestive of fish- 

 shooting. Fig. 66 shows the form of a barbed flint point from Robenhausen, 

 which mio-ht have been used with advantage as the head of an arrow designed 



* Keller: Lake Dwellings; Vol. I, p. 450; Vol. II, Plate XLII, Fig. 1. 



t Gross : Dernieres Trouvailles dans les Habitations Lacustres du Lac de Bienne; Materiaux; Vol. XV, 

 1880; p. 10. Kopresentations of the two harpoon-heads on Plate II, Figs. 1 and 2. 



I Keller: Lake Dwellings; Vol. II, Plate XLIII, Fig. 12. 



