Proceedings. 43 



have restored in order to show more conclusively the purpose 

 for which they were evidently intended. But there is one 

 form which, in my opinion, has been as yet misunderstood, 

 and that is the long, narrow flint-flakes and the short, curved 

 fragments so often met with ; the former are often called 

 knives, and the latter scrapers or flakes simply. Now, by 

 comparing these with a number of actual fish-gorges of bone 

 and stone, and hooks of shell and bone and wood, which I 

 have obtained from Fiji, the New Hebrides, Hudson's Bay, 

 Alaska, and Queen Charlotte's Sound, it will be seen that if 

 these dubious-looking flints be restored upon the same plan 

 and by the same method of manufacture, a very serviceable 

 set of implements is evolved. 



Before what I would call the shell and bone age, there is 

 every reason to believe that fish-hooks of an earlier type were 

 undoubtedly used ; for are not these remains most abundant 

 near the coast and large rivers ? And besides that, the shell 

 fish-hooks of the present South Seas are contemporary with 

 the poUshed stone period in those regions, whereas the crude 

 flint hooks of the Jersey cavern were associated with an 

 earlier type of chipped flints. 



Since restoring and examinmg these early fish-hooks, I 

 have seen several collections of imj)lemeuts, and have been 

 much struck with many specimens (midescribed, or called 

 scrapers), which, if mounted properly, would make good fish- 

 hooks. 



The fish-gorge, forms of which are still in use amongst the 

 Eskimo, was doubtless the earliest method of catching fish ; 

 it consisted of a stone, or flint sharpened more or less at each 

 end, and tied round the centre by the line. When baited with 

 some fatty material, the gorge was placed in a line with the 

 cord, and when swallowed by the fish a sharp jerk caused it 

 to come at right angles to the cord and the gullet of the fish, 

 thus fixing it firmly and enabling the fisherman to land his 

 catch. 



There is no doubt that many of the flint arrow- and spear- 

 heads found in various deposits are really for fish-arrows and 

 fish-spears ; indeed, I am inclined myself to regard palseolithic 



