138 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



" The hooks made with wood were curious : some were exceedingly small, 

 not more than two or three inches in length, but remarkably strong ; others were 

 large. The wooden hooks were never barbed, bid simply pointed, usually curved 

 inwards at the point, but sometimes standing out very wide, occasionally armed 

 at the point with a piece of bone. 



" The shell, or shell and bone hooks, were curious and useful, and always 

 answered the purpose of hook and bait ; the small ones are made almost circular, 

 and bent so as to resemble a worm.''"'' 



Of this special form are the Californian hooks represented by Figs. 194, 

 195, 203, 204, and others. They probably were intended to imitate worms, and 

 to be swallowed entire by the fish. 



It appears to me that those ethnologists who claim an affinity between 

 the Californians and Malays might use the similarity in the fish-hooks among 

 these peoples as an argument in favor of their theor3^ 



The former inhabitants of this country, it is well known, made to some 

 extent iiriplements and ornaments of native copper, which they brought into 

 shape by hammering, their supplies of the virgin metal being in all probability 

 chiefly derived from the district of Lake Superior, where the traces of primitive 

 mining-operations are abundant. Among the copper articles hitherto discovered 

 are a few fish-hooks, harpoon-heads, and sinkers. Though I knew of the exis- 

 tence of several copper fish-hooks in the United States, I could obtain only one 

 specimen for inspection and representation. It belongs to Mr. Charles L. Mann, 

 of Milwaukee, and was for a short time obligingly placed at my disposition by 

 that gentleman. Fig. 216 shows it in full size. 



Fig. 216. — Copper fish-hook. Wisconsin (Oconto River). 



Mr. Mann describes its mode of manufacture so well that I will quote his 

 own words : — " It is made of copper, hammered thin, and rolled up just as one 



* Ellis: Polynesian Researches; Vol. I, London, 1853; p. 145, etc. — The author speaks from personal obser- 

 vation, having been engaged in missionary labors in Polynesia from 1816-'ii4. The first edition of " Polynesian 

 Researches " appeared in 1828. 



