54 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 



wealth of practical articles placed on exhibition by the National Museum 

 in Washington. Whilst with nearly all other nations fishing is con- 

 sidered such a venerable occupation that it is almost considered a crime 

 to make any change in the catching implements and instruments which 

 have been hallowed by the traditions of ages, the practical sense of the 

 American does not have the slightest regard for such traditions, but 

 simply goes on inventing something new all the time. 



When the American wants to cut or carve a fish, he of course uses a 

 knife ; but far from contenting himself with a single kind of knife, he 

 thinks that every fish demands a special kind of knife. It will almost 

 seem ludicrous to our readers if we state that America has exhibited 

 no less than ten different kinds of knives for slaughtering fish ; but each 

 one of these knives finds a peculiar and practical use. Many hundreds 

 of thousands of mackerel, codfish, and shell-fish can be "prepared" 

 much quicker, if the right kind of instrument is used. This does not, 

 however, exhaust the list of knives; but the Exposition shows us knives 

 for pealing off the fat of the whale, boat knives to cut the harpoon line 

 of the whale-boats in case it has became entfingled, knives for decap- 

 itating fish, for cutting their throat, for scraping off the scales, for 

 making slits, &c. But this is not yet sufficient; the exhibitors have taken 

 special pains not only to show that the inventive genius of the Amer- 

 ican nation has created something entirely new in the ethnological field, 

 but also to satisfy the historical interest. For this reason the imple- 

 ments and tools made by the ancient aborigines have been gathered and 

 embodied in this collection, including the stone and bone knives of the 

 Indians and Esquimaux ; the spears and javelins of the Esquimaux on 

 the Mackenzie River near the Arctic coast, and on the northwest coast ; 

 the salmon-spears of the Passamaquoddy Indians ; the fish and bird 

 spears of the Alaska Indians ; Esquimaux harpoons, made of stone, 

 bone, and iron ; spearheads of the natives, made of American copper; 

 spear-heads and hooks made of the split bones of various animals, and 

 harpoon-points with fins made of fish-bladder; arrows with which the 

 Esquimaux kill fish, &c. 



As these Arctic natives live exclusively by the fisheries and the chase, 

 we may be certain in case the collection of the National Museum iu 

 Washington is complete, that we see here, besides the numberless in- 

 ventions and implements of recent date, an almost exhaustive collection 

 of implements used by the ancient aborigines of the farthest regions of 

 the North. If \\g suppose this to be correct, this small portion of the 

 great exhibit would permit us again brietiy to touch the most imi)ortaut 

 questions of anthropology. It is well known that when, some years 

 ago, the German anthropologists met in convention at Constance, they 

 devoted a good deal of attentiou to the drawings oraniuuils which pre- 

 historic man, at a time when the mammoth had not yet become extinct, 

 is said to have rudely etched with stone on ivory, horn, or bone. At 

 that time the advocates of the genuineness of the " famous grazing 



