190 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



enable us to derive from this source a jilausible conjecture as to the age of this 

 canoe. So many uncertainties enter into calculations of this character, that in 

 most instances all attempts to arrive at definite results fall far short of satis- 

 factory conclusions. All we know is, that this Indian canoe is old — older than 

 the barge which conveyed Oglethorpe up the Savannah, when he first selected 

 the home of the Yamacraws as a site for the future commercial metropolis of the 

 colony of Georgia — more ancient, probably, than the statelier craft which carried 

 the fortunes of the discoverer of this Western Continent. 



" So far as our information extends, this is the first and only well-authenti- 

 cated instance of the exhumation of an ancient canoe in this country. It is in 

 just such a locality that we might have anticipated with greatest confidence the 

 existence of such a relic. The general employment of bark and skin in the 

 manufacture of their canoes by Northern Indians precludes all reasonable hope 

 of finding ancient specimens made of such perishable materials."* 



This canoe. Colonel Jones informs me, gradually yielded to decay after its 

 exhumation. 



i 

 Fig. 338.— Wooden toy-boat. Santa Cruz Island. (18178). 



During his exploration of graves in California, Mr. Paul Schumacher dis- 

 covered some wooden objects which I consider as toy-boats. Fig. 338 rej^resents 

 the best-preserved and smallest of them, which was found on Santa Cruz Island. 

 It is a miniature fiat-bottomed dug-out, measuring nearly seven inches in lengtli, 

 and showing at one end a perforation, evidently designed to receive the line by 

 which the little canoe was guided. This specimen is a very creditable sample of 

 Indian wood-carving. 



Bailing -scoops. — In a former publication I have designated another wooden 

 object, likewise obtained by Mr. Schumacher on Santa Cruz Island, as a bailing- 

 vessel, because its form and material suggested that use. 



Fig. 339 represents the specimen in question. It is skillfully cut out of one 

 piece of wood, including the handle, and has a capacit}' of about one pint. 

 The outline of this vessel, which is eight inches long with the handle, resembles 

 that of an irregular rectangle with strongly-rounded angles. The upper edge 

 opposite the handle is curved downward, as if by wear — a feature which led me 



* Jones: Antiquities of the Southern Indians; p. 53, etc.; figure of canoe on p. 53. Colonel Jones kindly 

 loaned mo tho cut. 



