APPENDIX. 323 



Rabut saw, in possession of the Abbe Tripier, three gold fish-hooks, obtained 

 from a grave in New Granada.* No description of these hooks is given. 



u 



1 



FIG. 381. Gold fish-hook. Cauca. 



Not long ago, Mr. Alexander C. Chenoweth, a civil engineer, showed me the 

 gold fish-hook represented in Fig. 381. He discovered it on the 15th of June, 

 1882, in a mining-tunnel excavated under his direction on the property known 

 as the Yacula gold-mine, situated in the State of Cauca, eighteen leagues distant 

 from Barbacoas, on the Pacific Coast. The fish-hook was found in the ground, 

 composed of gravel and drift-wood, together with two gold beads and several gold 

 nuggets. These objects occurred at a depth of fifty feet from the surface, in the 

 side of the mountain, which covered, in all probability, the ancient bed of the 

 Yacula River, and it is Mr. Chenoweth's opinion that they cannot have been 

 introduced, but must have lain in the place where they were discovered. I regret 

 that I neglected asking the finder, now again abroad, concerning the elevation of 

 the mountain. Other gold fish-hooks, he stated, had been found in the same 

 district. 



The hook, made of round, well-polished gold wire, is destitute of any con- 

 trivance for the attachment of a line.f 



* Matfoiaux; Vol. VI, 1870; p. 348. New Granada formerly embraced the present United States of Co- 

 lombia. 



j- I found in the Washington "Sunday Post " of October 14, 1883, n short notice bearing on gold fish-hooks, 

 which was taken from the "Arizona Citizen," published at Tucson. Mr. E. J. Smith, the County Coroner, it is 

 stated in that notice, has in his possession four gold fish-hooks, acquired by him with others now given away or 

 lost in 1866, while engaged in mining-operations in the State of Cauca. I wrote immediately to Mr. Smith, for 

 the purpose of obtaining from him photographs of his gold fish-hooks and information as to their discovery; but 

 I received no answer. I then addressed a letter to the editor of the "Arizona Citizen," Mr. S. Robert Brown, 

 and he favored me with a reply, stating that he had spoken to Mr. Smith, and that the latter would send me the 

 desired photographs without delay. My letter to Mr. Smith was afterward published as a part of an article, en- 

 titled " Prehistoric Fish Hooks," in the "Arizona Daily Star " (Tucson) of March 7, 1884. " The hooks, of 

 which Mr. Smith has four," it is said, " are about one inch in length and somewhat thicker than a good-sized pin, 

 and would in fishing be probably as effective as a barbless bent pin, which they much resemble. The shank to 

 which the line was attached is bent in the shape of a small ring or eye, with a diameter of probably one-sixteenth 

 of an inch. The hook is curved in a line parallel with the shank, and has been ground down to a point almost 

 as sharp as that of a needle. The thirteen, which Mr. Smith at one time bad, were, with one exception, of an 

 almost uniform size and weight ; the one excepted being much larger and heavier, but otherwise not different 

 from the smaller ones. 



" They were found in the State of Cauca, United States of Colombia, on the river Guava, about fifty leagues 



