182 



PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



Geiiei-cil Devereux informed me that lie obtained this specimen, in the 

 summer of 1852, fi'om the family of the finder. It had been exhumed, some 

 years previously, from a tumulus in Painesville Township, Lake County, Ohio. 

 He had not the opportunity of personally visiting the site and remains of this 

 mound, which, from the description given of it, was of no unusual size or shape. 

 It had been gradually leveled by the plough, during which process large quan- 

 tities of detached human bones as well as many distinct skeletons had come to 

 lio-ht; and also implements and ornaments of stone, together with the copper 

 article — the only one made of that metal. The family of the discoverer had 

 displaced or lost everything of the find, excepting the copper relic, which hap- 

 pily had been carefully preserved as possessing unusual value. 



In a valuable treatise on North American prehistoric copper articles. Dr. 

 Emil Schmidt has described this object as an ornament.* Its weight and form 

 militate against this view, whereas it has all the characteristics of a sinker, and 

 probably Avas employed as such. It is a reproduction in copper of a certain 

 type of stone sinkers, of which the specimen represented in Fig. 298 may serve 

 as an example. 



In the next group I finally present designs of four specimens made of shell, 

 three of which correspond in shape more or less to certain objects of stone 

 brought to the reader's notice, which I consider as sinkers. 



Fig. 326.— Florida. 

 (.■i25C0). 



Fio. 327.— Florida. 

 (18060). 



Fio. 32S.— Florid.'u 

 (32507). 



Fio. 320.— West Virginia. 

 (30773). 



All h 



Figs. 326-329.— Shell sinkers. 



Fig. 326. — Cast of a modified shell of Strombus intgiUs, found in Florida, and 

 sent to the National Museum for reproduction in plaster, by Mr. J. W. Velie, of 

 Chicago. The edge-portion of the wall of this shell has been removed until its 

 more solid part was reached ; the end of the beak is ground off, and below the 



* Schmidt: Die praliistorischen Kupfergeriithe Nordamerikas ; Archiv fiir Anthropologic; Vol. XI, 1878; 



p. 88. 



