SINKERS. 85 



groove may run round the circumference of a flattish ovoid water-worn pebble, 

 giving it somewhat the appearance of a ship's block. 



Fig. 111. — Sink-stone of steatite from Shetland ; weight, 14 ounces. 



" These stone sinkers I have frequently seen in use. As regards the first 

 type, those which are simply bored stones, I have seen the same man with one 

 of them at the end of one line, and at the end of the other a sinker of lead cast 

 in a mould and tastefully shaped. Usualh' the bored sinkers are water-worn 

 stones, selected for suitability of shape ; but sometimes they are made of a piece 

 of stone roughly flaked into a proper form ; while at other times, where the 

 soft soapstone is found, there is more or less neatness in their design, and they 

 may even be found imitating the form of the leaden sinker, or having rudely 

 cut on them the initials of their owner (see Fig. 111). It may happen again 

 that they are entirely natural stones ; that is, both their form and the hole 

 through them may be due to natural agencies. A sinker of this last kind I once 

 saw with a Shetlander. It was of flint, and he said he had brought it from 

 ' foreign parts,' because he thought it would be useful at home as a sinker. 



" Of one of the types of sinkers, that showing the two grooves crossing each 

 other, there was some difficulty in seeing the exact way in which the line and 

 hooks were made fast to the stones, and what purpose the grooves served. Some 

 stones of this kind have been found in circumstances indicating great age ; and 

 I remember hearing a distinguished antiquary, no longer alive, speculating 

 ingeniously as to whether they could really have served so commonplace a pur- 

 pose as that of sinking a fisherman's line. But I have been able to set the 

 question at rest by procuring two specimens from the parish of Walls, through 

 the Rev. James Russell, with all the appliances on them exactly as they were 

 when actually in use a few years ago (see Figs. 112 and 113 on the following 

 page). Sinkers of this form vary in size. They are generally, I think, larger 

 than those of the bored form ; and I understand that this is explained by the 

 fact that they are chiefly used when fishing in deep waters. 



" It is not solely, however, in those districts of our country which we regard 

 as outlying and remote that Ave encounter fishermen using stone instead of lead 

 or other materials for the manufacture of sinkers. On the Tweed to this day the 

 nets are weighted by bored stones, and specimens of these are placed in museums 

 of antiquities, not because they are themselves objects of antiquity, but because 

 their history being accurately known, they teach lessons of caution in dealing 



