Evolution of the Fishing-hook, dc. 29 



description now of our investigations, but I will very briefly 

 describe tbe " find." 



The cave itself was difficult of access and bard to find ; it was 

 in tbe face of tbe present granite (or more correctly speaking 

 syenite) cliff, and tbe sea wbicb broke on its torn and rugged base 

 was deep water even at low tide. 



Tbe floor of tbis cave was composed mainly of felspatbic clay, 

 tbe decomposition of tbe syenite rock; in tbis clay was em- 

 bedded a large boulder of a bard sandstone, unlike any otber 

 stone in tbe island, and distributed tbrougb tbe clay floor were 

 thousands of chipped flints, most of them struck off in the 

 manufacture of weapons, and some, no doubt, weapons them- 

 selves. Spear -beads, arrow-points, scrapers, knives, drills, &c., 

 were tbe chief, but there were a great number of curved frag- 

 ments with a sharp point, and others that were long narrow 

 flakes, commonly called knives, but which would have made but 

 a poor implement in this respect. It is to these latter two 

 forms that I wish more especially to refer. 



(Mr. Lovett here referred in detail to tbe food of primitive 

 man, showing how his first desire to catch fish prompted him to 

 use a flmt-flake as a " gorge." He exhibited a number of these, 

 together with recent gorges of stone and bone from tbe Indian 

 ti-ibes of North America.) 



Tbe " gorge," not being suitable perhaps for all kinds of fish, 

 was rapidly improved upon, and tbe first real fish-hook appeared; 

 it, too, was made of flint, but a somewhat clumsy concern, and, 

 as man had become better able to make use of his surroundings, 

 there is no doubt that the rude stone hook soon gave way to 

 hooks of shell and bone. 



Tbe books on the table are restored from specimens found in 

 the Jersey cave also ; there are several of them, and they all 

 possess many peculiar characteristics, which show that whatever 

 they were used for there was a method in then- manufacture, and 

 tbis method seems to point to one conclusion only, namely, that 

 they were fish-hooks. The points of resemblance are these: 

 each specimen has an apex, or a proof that it had one once ; it 

 has also a flattened shank, by which it could be fixed to a wood 

 or bone shaft ; it has also a notched surface opposite to the 

 shank to enable it to be bound with fibre to the shank ; and it 

 has also a slight projection corresponding to the apex, enabling 

 a cross binding of fibre to strengthen the first lashings. 



When I restored these specimens I took for my pattern a hook 

 from Fiji, made of the shell of a species of Haliotis, and lashed 

 my barbs in the same manner as it had been ; when finished I 

 tested their strength, and I found that these flint hooks could 

 land a fish of fifteen pounds dead weight, and I believe if 

 bitumen was used, as it is used by the Borneo Dyaks to finish 



