36 



The Prehistoric Hunter. 



In the hardened beds of these caves are found flint and bone 

 implements, and sketches and carvings on bones, which show that 

 the men of the caves were much more advanced than the men of 

 the drift. They hunted the same game, but it appears that the mam- 

 moth and great elk had now diminished in numbers, and that the 

 herds of reindeer had so increased that this period in the history of 

 prehistoric man is often called the reindeer period. 



To the flint axes, spears, and knives of the drift-men, the cave- 

 dweller had added the arrow and bow and fish-harpoons, the heads 

 of which were skillfully and with great labor cut with flint-flakes out 

 of the horn and bone of the reindeer. Some of these harpoons are 

 armed with barbs along their sides ; others are formed of lance- 

 shaped pieces of bone, broad and hollow at their bases, showing 

 that these were probably placed on the end of a shaft, and con- 

 nected therewith by a long cord. On striking the fish the head of 

 the harpoon would separate from the shaft, and the fish could be 

 played and landed by the cord. 



Mr. Phillips has shown, in his chapter on "The Primitive Fish- 

 hook," that the cave-dwellers probably used a flint-flake, or splinter, 

 in a manner similar to the baited needle used in these days in " snig- 

 gling" for eels and pike. A similar angling implement, made of 

 bone, has been found among the relics of the pile-dwellers in the 

 Swiss lakes, and our Indians of Frenchman's Bay, Maine, seem to 

 have used a like angling tool. According to Dr. Keller (" Lake- 

 dwellings of Switzerland and other parts of Europe"), the sniggler 

 yet survives in Switzerland, where it is used for catching wild ducks. 



The fish-bones and carvings found in the caves show that their 

 inhabitants speared or caught the salmon, trout, pike, and carp. 



Though whistles made of the foot-bone of the reindeer, with a 

 hole in one side near the bottom of the cavity, have been found in 

 the caves, yet they were 

 not used as dog-calls, for 

 the relics of the caves do 

 not show that they had this 

 animal as assistant in the 

 chase and companion and 

 protector. By blowing 

 into one of these whistles, 



PREHISTORIC CARVING IN IVORY. 



