332 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



which often betoken a considerable degree of skill. Many objects were made of 

 an alloy of gold and copper, called champi. They also used bronze. Imitations 

 of living creatures in gold, silver, or champi are still in existence, though the 

 gold objects, as may be imagined, have mostly been melted. 



Mr. Squier represents a fish cast in solid silver, brought with other kindred 

 articles from Peru;* but I refrain from copying his figure, being somewhat in 

 doubt as to the genuineness of the original, which I have often seen. It is now 

 in the American Museum of Natural History at New York. 



In the year 1867 Mr. Squier received from Mr. Henry Swayne, then at 

 Lima, a series of representations of fishes of various kinds, cut out from thin 

 plates of silver. They are here shown in Figs. 396 to 403.f Mr. Squier con- 

 siders them as " accurate representations of fishes actually found in Peruvian 

 waters." I showed the illustrations for identification to Professor Theodore Gill, 

 who pronounced them too conventional in execution for determining the different 

 species. Concerning the circumstances of their discovery Mr. Swayne wrote as 

 follows : 



" I avail myself of the first opportunity to send you a number of small silver 

 fishes, which were taken out, by the captain of a coasting- vessel, a friend of mine, 

 from the guano of the Chincha Islands, thirty-two feet below the surface. I think 

 they will go far to establish the high antiquity of the aborigines of this country. 

 This friend of mine, Captain Juan Pardo, an Italian, saw taken out of the guano, 

 at the same time that these fishes were found, the body of a female, lacking the 

 head, which, however, was discovered at some distance from the skeleton. The 

 chest, breasts, and ribs were covered with thin sheets of gold, and the whole 

 would have been a most valuable relic, had it been preserved as found. But the 

 workmen divided the gold, part of which was sold to captains of ships loading 

 guano, and the body thrown into the sea."{ 



Mr. Squier is somewhat skeptic regarding the statements that artefacts have 

 occurred at great depths in the guano. These accounts, he thinks, " are far too 

 vague to be accepted, in this epoch of positive science, as the basis of rational 

 speculation regarding the antiquity of man or his works on the shores of Peru. 

 Articles may be found at considerable depths in huanu, where they have been 

 buried. They may have been simply deposited at the surface and fallen down, 



* Squier : Peru ; p. 173. 



f These illustrations appeared first in Frank Leslie's "Illustrated Newspaper" of October 19, 1867, accom- 

 panying an article by Mr. Squier. They were then again published by him in an essay in the " Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute of New York, Vol. I, New York, 1871-'72," p. 51 ; and finally found their way into his 

 " Peru " (copyrighted in 1877). I am indebted to Messrs. Harper & Brothers for electrotypes of these illustra- 

 tions as well as for that of Fig. 404, which likewise appeared both in the above-named journal (p. 54) and in tho 

 work on Peru. 



J Squier: Antiquities from the Guano or Huanu Islands of Peru ; Journal of the Anthropological Institute 

 of New York ; Vol. I, 1871-'72; p. 50, etc. 



