FISU-HOOKS. 71 



by Mr. T. Wright, F. S. A. The latter are, however, in all probability, for- 

 genes. ^ 



I introduce on the preceding page (not without some misgivings) Fig. 90, rep- 

 resenting a chipped flint hook found either in Sweden or Norway, and presented to 

 the National Museum by Professor Jillson, a gentleman of Scandinavian national- 

 ity. The hook is two inches and one-eighth long, and made of a flattish flake, on 

 an average about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, the somewhat rude chipping 

 being confined to the outline. The point terminates rather sharply. No doubt 

 can be entertained as to the genuineness of the relic, its appearance betokening 

 great antiquity. Of course, it remains undecided whether this hook was designed 

 for catching fish or for some other i^urpose, though experts in angling have 

 admitted the hare possibility that it may have been a fish-hook. The width of 

 the shank and of the curved portion, however, lessen its fitness for that purjiose. 



i 



2 



Fig. 91. — Scania. Fig. 92. — Pomerania. 



Figs. 91-93. — Fish-hooks of bone and reindeer-horn 



Fig. 93. — Norway. 



Professor Nilsson gives the description and figure of a fine barbed bone 

 fish-hook (here Fig. 91) which possibly belongs to the neolithic age.f " It has 

 been found," he says, " in one of the old peat-bogs in the South of Scania. It 

 is three inches long, and about six-eighths of an inch from the point of the 

 barb to the bar. The bar and the bend are nearly round, and flattened a little 



* Evans : Ancient Stone Implements ; p. 265. 



t The lacustrine fish-hooks of bone, etc., it will be remembered, are unbarbed 



