122 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



A similar statement is made by Mr. Christensen in the article already quoted 

 in two instances. He says there are sometimes found in Germany flint splinters 

 with curved points, occasionally fashioned at the thicker end for attachment to a 

 shank. These specimens are regarded by him as component parts of fish-hooks. 

 In addition, he represents a bone object of a form suggestive of the same use, 

 preserved in the collection of the antiquarian association " Prussia" in Konigs- 

 berg, Prussia. I copy here his illustration as Fig. 181.* 



FIG. 181. Bone point of fish-hook. Germany. 



After this short digression I resume the subject of North American prehis- 

 toric fish-hooks. 



In the first place I have to allude to their great scarcity in the eastern 

 portion of North America, and to state that those which have been found within 

 that area are almost exclusively made of bone. They occur more frequently on 

 the Pacific Coast, especially in Californian latitudes, and there they consist either 

 of bone or of shell. I refer here to real fish-hooks, and not to relics which 

 possibly were parts of hooks. Bone fish-hooks are occasionally mentioned by 

 the early authors on North America, as a perusal of the " Extracts " at the end 

 of this publication will show.-}- The hooks used by the Indians of Virginia are 

 thus described by Captain John Smith : " Their hookes are either a bone grated 

 as they noch their arrowes in the forme of a crooked pinne or fish-hooke, or of 

 the splinter of a bone tyed to the clift of a little sticke, and with the end of the 

 line they tie on the bait." From this short, but eminently graphic, description 

 we learn that the Indians of a certain Atlantic district used fish-hooks made 

 entirely of a fragment of bone, and others consisting of two parts joined together. 

 The latter class of hooks is still in use among some North American tribes. 

 The Makah codfish-hook, Fig. 10 on page 15, is similarly constructed, and I 

 present, additionally, in Fig. 182 the form of a fish-hook used by the Kutchin 

 Indians, who inhabit the territory between the Mackenzie River and Norton 

 Sound. " The hooks," observes Mr. Strachan Jones, " are made and baited in 



* Deutsche Fischerei-Zeitung ; March 22, 1881 ; p. 95. 



f See " Extracts: " Captain Smith, Ogilby, Sagard, Kalm, etc. 



