NO PALEOLITHIC HOOK 31 



distinct from Gorges) or of anything resembling Hooks proper — 

 viz. hooks made out of one piece, recurved, and with sharpened 

 ends — being used by the Old Stone Man. 



De Mortillet, it is true, writing in 1867,1 states that " hooks 

 belonging to the reindeer epoch have been found in the Caves 

 of Dordogne. Along with those of the simple form (the 

 gorges) others were met with of much more perfect shape." 

 In his later work {op. cit.) of 1890 he contents himself with 

 claiming the existence of a hook, but of very primitive type, 

 " a small piece of bone tapered at either end " — in fact, nothing 

 more than the Gorge. 2 



S. Reinach, again, instances " three fish-hooks," but whittles 

 them away till they become " two sharp points more in the 

 nature of a gorge." 3 Osborne, commenting on the numerous 

 pigmy flints discovered in the Tardenoisian debris, writes 

 that " it would appear that a large number of these were 

 adapted for insertion in small harpoons, or that those of the 

 grooved form might even have been used as fish-hooks." ^ 

 With the opinion of Christy (co-explorer with Lartet of La 

 Madelaine) that those pointed bone rods or gorges " may have 

 formed part of fish-hooks, having been tied to other bones or 

 sticks obliquely," ^ the evidence in favour of the Hook 

 practically finishes. 



The case, I venture to maintain, breaks down. And this, 

 too, in spite of the view expressed and the evidence adduced by 

 so eminent an authority as Abbe H. Breuil, and in spite of the 

 gravure de Fontarnaud figurant un poisson mordant (?) — the 



^ Les Origines de la Peche et de la Navigation, Paris. 



2 An excellent monograph, with hundreds of illustrations, by E. Krause 

 {" Vorgeschichtliche Fischereigerate und Neuere Vergleichsstuche ") contained in 

 the magazine, Zeitschrift fur Fischerei. xi. Band 3/4 Heft (Berlin, 1904), p. 208. 

 states that hooks of the Stone Age are numerous, but unfortunately he does not 

 discriminate between the Old and New Stone Ages. PalaeoUthic finds mention 

 but once in his 176 pages. 



* Types de la Madelaine, p. 222, fig. 78. 



* H. J. Osborne, The Men of the Stone Age (1915). P- 465- 



6 Reliquice AquitaniccB (London, 1875), ii. p. 58. Christy's solitary 

 buttress for his opinion is a reference to " a Nootka Sound fishing imple- 

 ment," which is identical (according to Rau, fig. 9) with a hook described in 

 Mr. J. G. Swan's The Indians of Cape Flattery, as used by the Makahs solely 

 (and successfully) for the hahbut, because " its mouth is vertical, instead of 

 horizontal, like most fish." The absence of halibut from dt'bris or repre- 

 sentations scarcely strengthens Christy's opinion. 



