The Primitive Fish -Hook. 343 



The origin of the double hook having been, I believe, satisfac- 

 torily explained, to make the barb on it was readily suggested to 

 primitive man, as he had used the same device on fish-spears and 

 harpoons. 



This double-barbed hook from the Swiss lakes 

 is quite common. Then, from the double to the 

 single hook the transition was rapid. Single 

 bronze hooks of the Lacustrine period sometimes 

 have no barb. Such differences as exist are due 

 to the various methods of attaching- the line. double hook, barbed. 



FROM SWISS LAKES. 



In Professor A. M. Mayer's collection there 

 is a Lacustrine bronze hook, the shank of which is bent over 

 parallel with the stem of the hook. This hook is a large one, 

 and must have been used for big fish — probably the trout of the 

 Swiss lakes. 



Hooks made of stone are exceedingly rare, and though it is 

 barely possible that they might have been used for fish, I think this 

 has not been conclusively shown. Wilson gives, in his work, draw- 

 ings of two stone hooks which were found in Scandinavia. Though 

 the theory that these stone objects were fashioned for fishing is sup- 

 ported by so good an authority as Mr. Charles Rau, the archaeolo- 

 gist of the United States National Museum at Wash- 

 ington, it does not seem to me possible that these 

 hooks could have been made for fishing. Such forms, 

 from the nature of the material, would have been 

 exceedingly difficult to fashion, and, even if made, 

 would have presented few advantages over the prim- 

 itive gorge. 



This, however, must be borne in mind : in catch- 

 ing fish, primitive man could have had no inkling 

 of the present curved form of fish-hook, which, with 

 its barb, secures the fish by penetration. A large 

 proportion of sea-fish, and many river- 

 I j \i / fish, swallow the hook, and are caught, 



U y V M not by the hook entering the jaws of the 



\ J \l *M fish, but because it is fastened in their 



V ^^mr stomachs. In the Gloucester fisherman's 



BRONZE FISH-HOOKS. (FROM THE . r A £ 1_ * - A '. . 



collection of prof. a. m.mayer.) language ot to-day, a nsn so captureci is 



