VI PREFACE. 



have considerably abbreviated its first part by excluding much introductive and 

 descriptive matter not immediately connected with fishing. Yet, as it probably 

 will also be read by non-archaeologists, it has been thought necessary to dwell 

 on the differences between the palaeolithic and neolithic ages, to give accounts of 

 the tool and bone-bearing drift-beds, of cave-habitations, artificial shell-deposits, 

 lake-dwellings, and, finally, to present a brief characterization of the bronze age. 

 These intercalated portions were in part taken, with or without modifications, 

 from " Early Man in Europe," a small volume embracing a series of articles, 

 which I had written in 1875 for " Harper's New Monthly Magazine." The 

 articles in question, notwithstanding their popular character, embodied the 

 results of a careful study of original sources, and it is hoped that the extracts 

 from them, utilized in the present case, will meet with the approbation of com- 

 petent judges. 



In the introduction to the second part of this work I have briefly stated 

 my views concerning palaeolithic man in North America. It would then have 

 afforded me special pleasure to refer to Professor W. Boyd Dawkins's excellent 

 article on early man in America, published in the " North American Review " 

 (October, 1883), the more so, since his conclusions and mine point in the same 

 direction; but the pages in which I alluded to the subject were already electro- 

 typed before the publication of that article. 



A work like that here presented must, from its very character, in a great 

 measure be a compilation from preceding writings. There are authors who, in 

 such cases, will slightly alter the text of their predecessors, and thus make it 

 their own, though not without mentioning the sources from which they have 

 drawn. I have preferred the mode of verbal quotation, not on account of being 

 the easier one, but because I was actuated by the desire of doing full justice to 

 those by whose labors I have profited. 



I have been much assisted in my work in various ways, and it is but proper 

 that I should express my acknowledgments. Reference was made to the advan- 

 tages I derived from my acquaintance with members of the United States Fish 



gansett Pier, Rhode Island, appeared in "Science" (Vol. 2, p. 653). There are figures of one perfect fish-hook 

 and of fragments of three others given. The perfect one, of whoso representation I would have published a copy, 

 if it had been feasible, bears some resemblance to the original of Fig. 189 on page 127 of this work, yet is smaller 

 and clumsier in shape. Owing to an oversight, a prehistoric Nova Scotian bone harpoon-head, figured on page 

 137 of Professor J. W. Dawson's "Fossil Men" (Montreal, 1880), has not been noticed in this work. Such 

 drawbacks seem to be unavoidable. 



