68 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



beyond the compass of my present observations. According to Professor Gras- 

 taldi, a wooden anchor came to light in the peat-covered small pile-work at 

 Mercurago, near Arona, on Lago Maggiore. This station, from the objects 

 there found, is supposed to pertain to the time when bronze began to take the 

 place of stone. The wooden anchor was more than a meter in length, terminated 

 at one end in two hooks, and Avas perforated at the other, to receive the rope.* 

 No further description, or figure, is given, and it remains doubtful to what period 

 the object belongs. 



I shall have to refer to lacustrine boats again, when treating of fishing 

 during the bronze period. 



The abstracts of reports on lake-settlements in Austria, Bavaria, etc., 

 contained in the translation of Dr. Keller's work have furnished no additional 

 details bearing upon fishing in the neolithic age. Unfortunately, the original 

 treatises are not at my command. 



FISHING-IMPLEMENTS AND UTENSILS NOT FOUND IN LACUSTRINE 



SETTLEMENTS. 



General Bemarks. — The above title sufficiently explains the purport of this 

 section, in which a limited number of objects will be described. It appears to 

 me that not many isolated fishing-implements have been discovered in Europe ; 

 for, if they were frequent, more would be said concerning them in ai'cha^ological 

 works. Yet, not a few may be in existence of which I have no knowledge, not- 

 withstanding my endeavors to follow the progress of prehistoric archteology in 

 Europe as closely as distance and other adverse cii'cum stances permit. In the 

 main, however, I believe my observation regarding the comparative scarcity of 

 neolithic antiquities bearing upon fishing to be correct. I will mention an 

 example in point. In August, 1880, there was in the city of Berlin an exhibition 

 of archaeological finds {Fnnde) made in Germany, to which nearly all public and 

 private collections of the empire had contributed tlieir shares, and it doubtless 

 represented not only all types of German prehistoric antiquities, but also their 

 numerical proportion. The exhibited objects are enumerated in a printed cata- 

 logue of 619 octavo pages, to which a supplement of 128 pages is added. In 

 examining the catalogue, I was struck with the scarcity of fishing-objects men- 

 tioned in it, there being specified only a number of flints pointed at both ends 

 and supposed to have been used like fish-hooks, two bone fish-hooks, one bone 

 harpoon-head, two bone darts {Fischsteclier) — one with inserted splinters of flint — 



* Gastaldi : Lake Habitations and Prehistoric Remains in the Turbaries and Marl-Beds of Northern and 

 Central Italy; translated by C. H. Chambers; London, 18G5; p. 102. 



