150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



from the Makah). Herring in open water were taken with the fish 

 rake. 



FISHHOOKS 



Presumably some of the small bone points were barbs for fishhooks 

 (pi. 15, a-e, k). Such tiny barbed points, usually grooved or notched 

 at the base for attachment to the shank, are known archeologically 

 from the Aleutians, Kodiak, and Kachemak Bay (all periods) (de 

 Laguna, 1943, p. 196; 1947, p. 212; 1956, pp. 182 f.; Heizer, 1956, p. 

 73, type III). What is essentially the same type of hook with barbed 

 barb was used for salmon and cod by the Nootka and Kwakiutl, and 

 by the Chilkat for trout (Drucker, 1950, Traits 55, 57, and 57a). A 

 hook with U-shaped shank and barbed barb (Trait 58) was used for 

 halibut on the southern and central Northwest Coast and by some of 

 the southern Tsimshian. A small point with three barbs from 

 Daxatkanada near Angoon was tentatively suggested as a barb for a 

 fishhook (de Laguna, 1960, p. 117, pi. 9, h). 



Barbed bone points suitable for fishhooks have been found at arche- 

 ological sites in Coast and Interior Salish country, although Barnett 

 (1939) reports only unbarbed points on modern fishhooks from the 

 Gulf of Georgia Sahsh. 



We may assume that the fishhook with barbed bone barb is an old 

 type on the Northwest Coast and in southwestern Alaska. The V- 

 shaped hook, with plain barb, probably represented by some of the 

 many small bone points found at Yakutat (pi, 15, g-j), from which the 

 angular halibut hook of the northern Northwest Coast was developed, 

 is apparently a still older and more widely distributed form (de 

 Laguna, 1947, pp. 212 f.). 



What may be an unfinished shank for a halibut hook is described 

 under "Human Figurines" (pp. 172-175), 



NOTCHED STONES 



Four notched stones from Old Town may have been sinkers for 

 fishing lines, even though the smallest seems very light for such use. 



The largest, from Old Town, level unknown, is a slab of rock, 2 cm. 

 thick, that has been roughly shaped into a disk with a diameter of 23 

 cm., on which three or four notches or irregularities could have held a 

 line. 



Two small flat circular pebbles have four evenly spaced notches on 

 the rim (fig. 18, h). One with a diameter of 1.2 and a thickness of 

 0.2 cm. is from Old Town III; the second, 6 cm. in diameter and 2,5 

 cm. thick, is from Old Town II. An ovoid cobble from Old Town I, 

 with a maximum diameter of 7.5 cm., has been notched on both edges 

 near one end. 



