The Primitive Fish- Hook. 



345 



ALASKAN HALIBUT-HOOK. (FROM THE COLLECTION OF PROF. A M. MAYER.) 



should it be suspended in a different way, it must be at once seen 

 how difficult it would be for the fish to swallow it. In this Alaskan 

 hook must be recognized the very first idea of what we call to-day 

 the center-draught hook. A drawing is also given of a steel hook 

 of a peculiar form coming from Northern Russia. The resemblance 

 between the Alaskan and this Russian hook is at first apparently 

 slight, but they both are, nevertheless, constructed on the same 

 principle. When this Russian hook is seized by the fish, and force 

 is applied to the line by the fisherman, the point of the barb and the 

 line are almost in one and the same direction. Almost the same may 

 be said of the Alaskan hook. Desirous of testing the capabilities of 

 this hook, I had a gross made after the Russian model, and sent 



ALASKAN HALIBUT-HOOK. 



