HOLMES.] FISHING APPLIANCES. 



209 



A fourth specimen, from Florida, i8 represented by a cast presented 

 by Professor Velie; it is three inches in length and nearly one inch in 

 diameter, and has been derived from the columella of a Busycon per- 

 versum. It has a broad groove near the upper end, with a long, sloping 

 shoulder, the body being somewhat conical below. Other specimens of 

 similar character have recently been added to the national collection. 

 A grooved specimen of medium size was obtained from a mound at 

 Madisonville, Ohio, and is figured by the explorers.' A few smaller speci- 

 mens come from New York, and others from Kentucky, but they were 

 probably intended for ornaments, and as such I prefer to class them. 



From the Pacific coast we have a large number of examples, one of 

 the finest being illustrated in Fig. 7, Plate XXVIII. It is a flattish, 

 somewhat pear-shaped pendant, and has a neatly cut groove near the 

 upi)er end. It was collected by Bowers on the island of Santa Eosa, 

 Gal., and was probably made from a Pachydesma or Amiantis. 



A new-looking specimen from Santa Barbara, carved from a flat bit 

 of pearly Haliotis, represents a fish, the mouth, gills, body, and tail 

 being distinctly shown. It may have been used as a bait. 



By far the most interesting examples of fishing implements of ancient 

 date have been obtained from graves in California ; these are well rep- 

 resented in the collections made by Schumacher and Bowers. A number 

 of specimens may be seen in the National Museum ; one sinker from this 

 collection has already been described. Fishhooks, however, constitute 

 the great majority of the specimens, and many of them are of such un- 

 precedented forms that thej have been mistaken for ornaments. The 

 marked peculiarity consists in the great width of the body of the hook, 

 and the deeply involuted character of the barbless point, making it 

 seem impossible that a fish should be impaled at all. It may be that 

 this hook was intended only as a contrivance for securing bait, and 

 that the fish, having swallowed this, was unable to disgorge it, and in 

 this way was secured by the fisherman. 



In Plate XXVIII, three of these hooks are illustrated. The method 

 of fastening them to the line is not well known, and the form does not 

 suggest it, except in a few cases iu which the shaft is enlarged slightly 

 at the upper end. The head is never perforated, but is frequently 

 pointed, and may have been inserted in a head of some other material 

 and secured by means of asphaltum. The fact that portions of this 

 material still adhere to the upper part of the shaft confirms this con- 

 jecture. None of these hooks are barbed. Similar hooks of bone, ex- 

 hibited in the national collection, have barbs on the outside, near the 

 point. Hooks resembling these are used by some tribes to secure the 

 ends of strings of beads. 



Prof. F. W. Putnam has described a number of these hooks which 

 belong to the Peabody Museum. The largest is two and three-fourths 



'Archaological Explorations by the Literary and Scientific Society, part II, p. 38, 

 fig. 31. 



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