16 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



similarly constructed. Such a hook consists of a straight piece of wood, from 

 four to six inches long, to which a bone barb is lashed on, as shown in the figure.* 

 I shall have more to say concerning hooks of similar make, when treating of 

 prehistoric fishing in North America. 



The questions whether the tapering bone rods from the French caves were 

 employed either in their simple form as primitive fishing-implements, or as barbs 

 in the construction of real hooks, or for both purposes, unfortunately cannot be 

 positively answered at the present time, and it would not be safe to go beyond 

 the suggestion that such may have been their use or uses. Possibly they were 

 designed for other applications. Hereafter it will be seen that such pointed 

 bones served as fishing-implements in the neolithic period. 



M. Grabriel de Mortillet seems to be mistaken in attributing the character of 

 fish-hooks to some of the bone objects found in the caves of Southern France. 

 He says : 



"Hooks belonging to the reindeer-epoch have also been found in the caves 

 and retreats of Dordogne, so well explored by Messrs. Lartet and Christy. 

 Along with those of the simple form which we have just described,f others were 

 met with of a much more perfect shape. These are likewise small fragments of 

 bone or reindeer's horn, with deep and wide notches on one side, forming a more 

 or less developed series of projecting and sharp teeth, or barbs. Two of them 

 are depicted in B Plate VI of the ' Reliquiae Aquitanicse.' "J 



Among the figures on the plate referred to by M. de Mortillet there is not 

 one that bears the slightest resemblance to a fish-hook, and M. Lartet, in 

 describing the represented objects, designates none of them by that name. 



While there is some doubt whether the cave-men of Southern France 

 practised fishing with a line, it may be taken for granted that they procured fish 

 by spearing, implements suited for that purpose having been discovered in great 

 number in the debris of the caves. These implements, harpoon-like in character 

 and well shaped, are generally cut from reindeer-horn, and the endurance 

 displayed in their manufacture is really astonishing, in consideration of the 

 stubbornness of the material, which had to be reduced to the proper shape by 

 means of sawing, cutting, and scraping with simple tools of flint. 



Figs. 11 to 15 represent characteristic forms of these harpoon-shaped dart- 

 heads of reindeer-horn, which, whether barbed only on one side or on both, 

 exhibit near the tapering lower end little eminences or knobs, the purpose of 

 which will be considered hereafter. The barbs in the figured specimens are 



*Swan: The Indians of Capo Flattery; p. 41. 

 f The pointed pieces of bone. 



\ De Mortillet: L'Origine de la Navigation et de la Peche (Paris, 1867, p. 25) ; quoted in Figuier's " Primi- 

 tive Man; " New York, 1870; p. 90. I never saw M. de Mortillet 's publication. 



