14 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



of different sizes, all found at the station of La Madelaine, which, however, is 

 not the only one in Southern France that has furnished such objects. Two of 

 those here figured show notchings, and there is at least some probability that 

 they served in the manner before described. 



M. Lartet, however, gives it as Mr. Christy's opinion "that they may have 

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

 and, indeed, in the specimen Fig. 12 (here Fig. 5) there are notches made at 

 intervals along the stem, and one of its ends is flattened on one side, so as to 

 allow of its being laid against another piece and tied securely on."* In order to 

 illustrate this method, M. Lartet figuresf what he calls a " fishing-implement 

 from Nootka Sound," yet without indicating for what special purpose and in 

 what manner it was used. " Such thin tapering pieces of wood or bone are tied 

 securely, at a certain angle, on the thicker part, and within the curve of a stick 

 bent like a shepherd's crook. Sometimes the spikes are sharp at both ends, but 

 more often they are blunt at the outer end."J 



The implement figured by him is a halibut-hook, identical in shape with one 

 represented by Mr. Swan in his work on the Makah Indians of Cape Flattery. 

 I give his illustration as Fig. 9, which represents the object much reduced, 

 halibut-hooks being generally from five to ten inches long. 



" The halibut-hook," he says, " is a peculiarly-shaped instrument, and is 

 made of splints from hemlock-knots bent in a form somewhat resembling an 

 ox-bow. These knots remain perfectly sound long after the body of the tree has 

 decayed, and are exceedingly tough. They are selected in preference to those of 

 spruce, because there is no pitch in them to offend the fish, which will not bite 

 at a hook that smells of resin. The knots are first split into small (slender ?) 

 pieces, which, after being shaped with a knife, are inserted into a hollow piece of 

 the stem of the kelp and roasted or steamed in the hot allies until they are 

 pliable ; they are then bent into the required form, and tied until they are cold, 

 when they retain the shape given them. A barb made of a piece of bone is 

 firmly lashed on to the lower side of the hook with slips of spruce cut thin like 

 a ribbon, or with strips of bark of the wild cherry. The upper arm of the hook 

 is slightly curved outward, and wound round with bark, to keep it from splitting. 

 A thread made of whale-sinews is usually fastened to the hook for the purpose 

 of tying on the bait, and another of the same material, loosely twisted, serves to 

 fasten the hook to the kelp line. As the halibut's mouth is vertical, instead of 

 horizontal like that of most other fish, it readily takes the hook, the upper 



*Reliquiie Aquitanicse; II, p. 58. In a note on the same page it is said that " these bone spikes, lashed 011 

 obliquely by their middle to the beveled end of a shaft, may also have served for both point and barb of a dart, 

 such as the Australians make out of a long stick and a kangaroo's fibula sharpened at both ends." 



flbid.; II, p. 51. 



J Ibid. ; II, p. 55. 



Schoolcraft figures on Plate 35 of Vol. Ill of his large work a similar hook from Oregon, but gives no 

 information concerning its use. 



