154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



used either with hook and line jigging (when often the liook itself 

 or the sinker is the lure), or with the fish spear, and finds the lure 

 among the northwestern Alaskan and Canadian Eskimos (dating 

 back to the Thule culture), the Kutchin, Ingalik Tena, Carrier, 

 Chilcotin, Shuswap, and Coast Salish. The Chilkat Tlingit used the 

 lure in winter when spearing lake fish through the ice with the three- 

 pronged spear. Identification of the Yakutat specimens as lures 

 would be strengthened if there were evidence that they utilized this 

 type of fish spear. 



These archeological specimens may, however, be compared to 

 small bone carvings of salmon and other fish from Kodiak, and to 

 little whale or whale-tail effigies from Kodiak, Prince William Sound, 

 Kachemak Bay, and the Alaska Peninsula, some of which were 

 presumably amulets (de Laguna, 1934, pp. 208 ff.; 1956, pi. 42, 

 30; Heizer, 1956, pp. 79 f.). Borden (1962) reports small stone 

 effigies of fish with suspension hole in the middle of the back from 

 Marpole (Eburne) and allied sites. 



Although used at Yakutat for catching aquatic birds, not fish, 

 the gorge may be mentioned here. It is represented by four slender, 

 slightly asymmetric pieces of bone, pointed at both ends (pi. 15, 

 /, fig. 18, 6, c). The two larger specimens, 10.6 and 11.7 cm. long, were 

 identified by our informants as gorges for catching ducks or sea gulls, 

 and the same explanation may apply to all. The smallest, about 

 6.3 cm., is from Old Town III; the rest are from Old Town II. 



Our informants explained that a few families still use gorges if 

 they have no shotgun shells. A line 4 feet long is attached to the 

 middle of the gorge, and the latter is baited with a whole herring, 

 eulachon, or smelt. Several such devices are attached to a line stretched 

 across a stream where the current runs over shallows, so that the 

 fish appear to be swimming. Ducks ascending the stream swallow 

 the bait and are caught when the gorge turns crosswise in their throats. 

 Sea gulls are taken in a similar fashion. 



The gorge is a very ancient device for catching fish and bkds. 

 Rostlund (1952, p. 117) believes, however, that in western North 

 America it is not and was not more widely distributed than compound 

 fishhooks. Gaps in its distribution are due to the adoption of more 

 complex types. For example, the Chugach catch gulls and ducks 

 with a three-pronged piece of wood, or a stick with a crosspiece 

 (Birket-Smith, 1953, pp. 38 ff.). Drucker (1950, Trait 225) records 

 the gorge for waterfowl among the Chilkat, Kwakiutl, and Nootka. 

 (Note that his "gorge" for kelpfish. Trait 38a, is really a bent hook.) 



