28 



PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



About eight years ago, Messrs. Louis Lartet* and Chaplain Duparc 

 published in " Materiaux pour 1'Histoire Primitive ct Xaturelle de 1'Homme " 

 an account of their exploration of the Duruthy Grotto, near Sorde, a place 

 situated not A r ery far from Peyrehorade, Department of Landes (Southwestern 

 France) . They discovered in the lowest deposit of the grotto evidently a place 



FIG. 33. Figure of a pike engraved on a drilled bear's tooth. Durutliy Grotto. 



resorted to at different times about fifty perforated and engraved canine teeth 

 of the bear and lion, doubtless trophies of the chase, which lay near a crushed 

 human skull and bones, perhaps the remains of a savage hunter, whose person 

 they once may have adorned. On one of these teeth, that of a bear, is traced 

 the outline of a fish, which has been pronounced a pike by persons versed in 

 ichthyology. Fig. 33, reproduced from " Materiaux,"f represents the incised 

 bear's tooth. 



There is in the collection of the Marquis de Vibraye a reindeer -jaw from 



v>\\\\ 



FIG. 34. Outline of a fish (Squalius f) ou a reindeer-jaw. Laugerie Basse. 



Laugerie Basse, upon which is engraved the outline of a fish, supposed to be 

 intended for a Squalius. Fig. 34 is a copy of the sketch .{ 



M. Elie Massenat found at Laugerie Basse several pieces of reindeer-horn 

 bearing fish-designs, which are figured on Plates I and II in Vol. XII (1877) of 

 " Materiaux." The tracings represented on the first plate are rather rude, not 

 permitting the recognition of a species ; but that on the second plate is believed 

 to be intended for a cyprinoid fish! I refrain from copying the figures, the 

 plates being marked Reproduction interdite. 



* Son of M. Edouard Lartet. 

 f Vol. IX, 1874, p. 142, Pig. 37. 

 J Reliquiae Aquitanicse; I, p. 225. 



