94 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



period ; those more smoothly cut, of the bronze age ; and the regularly built 

 boat of Bankton may perhaps come within the age of iron. The occurrence of 

 all of them in one and the same upraised marine formation by no means implies 

 that they belong to the same era, for in the beds of all great rivers and estuaries, 

 there are changes continually in progress, brought about by the deposition, 

 removal, and redeposition of gravel, sand, and fine sediment, and by the shifting 

 of the channel of the main currents from year to year, and from century to cen- 

 tury. All these it behooves the geologist and antiquary to bear in mind, so as 

 to be always on their guard, when they are endeavoring to settle the relative 

 date, whether of objects of art or of organic remains embedded in any set of 

 alluvial strata."* 



M. de Mortillet mentions several dug-outs extracted from peat, gravel, etc., 

 in France.f Yet, from his descriptions, which are otherwise sufficiently minute, 

 I cannot infer that a single one of them pertains to the stone age. 



I am not aware that paddles or other boat-propelling implements of wood 

 referable to the neolithic era have come to light. Several broken paddles are 

 preserved in the Dublin Museum, and one of them is figured by Sir W. Wilde. 

 " They are all of black oak, and present the appearance of great antiquity. "J 



Anchor-stones. The anchor in its simplest form next to a naturally per- 

 forated heavy nodule of flint doubtless was a stone of proper form and weight, 

 attached to some sort of rope. A groove cut around the stone for holding the 

 rope in place rendered this primitive anchor more serviceable. Such stones, 

 however, may belong to any age, and I allude to them merely for indicating the 

 probable character of a neolithic anchor. 



Mr. Friedel mentions an Ankerstein from the District of Angermtinde 

 (Brandenburg), exhibited in the Berlin Provincial Museum. It is of sandstone, 

 about the size of a man's head, and encircled by a deep groove. 



I have no illustration of such a stone to present. 



Professor Nilsson figures on Plate IX (Fig. 189) a perforated stone object 

 with four pointed arms, forming a sort of cross. It is here reproduced as Fig. 

 123. This specimen, found in the Province of Bohusland and preserved in the 

 Antiquarian Museum of Lund, has been considered as an anchor-stone, and 

 Nilsson formerly shared this opinion ; but subsequently he thought it more 

 probable that it had been the head of a battle-axe, though he is by no means 



* Sir C. Lyell : Antiquity of Man ; p. 50, etc. 



f Do Mortillet : Origine de la Navigation et do la Peche ; Materiaux ; Vol. Ill, 1867 ; p. 48, etc. This is 

 not, as the title would indicate, M. do Mortillet's entire publication, but only one of its chapters. 



J Sir W. Wilde : Catalogue ; p. 204, etc. 



Friedel : Fiihrer durch die Fischerei-Abtheilung ; p. 1. 



