cooper] BlBLlOrxEAPHY OF TRIBES OF TTEEEA DEL FUEGO 189 



deny this. Dr. Dabbene has recently {b, ISo) ascribed a wooden 

 fishhook to the Yahgans; this may be the pronged wooden gorge hook 

 described by the Rev. Mr. Bridges (h, 210; j, 315; Hyades, q, 359; 

 Dabbene, h, 185-186), which was used especially in taking cormorants. 



Admiral Wilkes found the Onas, probably Manekenkn, of Good 

 Success Bay in possession of a fishhook "made of the dorsal fin of a 

 fish, tied to a thin slip of whalebone, in the form of a barb" (a, vol. i, 

 118, 1845 ed., t, 115; h, 47; Colvocoresses, 36). The fact that both 

 the Yahgans (Hyades, g, 303, 368) and Onas (C. Gallardo, 203; Th. 

 Bridges, i, in Hyades, q, 9) occasionally use a fishing rod suggests the 

 probability that some form of fishhook may be used; Dr. Hyades 

 twice saw Yahgans fishing with a rod and line "du haut d'un rocher" 

 (q, 368). 



L'llermite reported finding stone fishhooks among the Yahgans of 

 Nassau Bay district in 1624: "In haer huttekens is niet te vinden als 

 eenighe biese korfkens / daer haer vis-tuygh in is / 't welck bestaet 

 in eenige lijnkens ende steene vis-hoecxkens / op onse wijse seer 

 aerdigh ghemaeckt / daer sy mosselen aen hanghen / waer mede sy 

 soo veel vis vanghen als sy begeeren" (1643 ed., 42; Commelin, ii, 28; 

 Decker's tr., 30, "welches bestehet in etlichen Steinern Fischhack- 

 lein / auss unser weiss sefir artig gemacht / daran sie Muschehi 

 anhengen;" "hameQons faits de pierre, assez artistement, a-peu-pres 

 comme les notres," de RenneviUe's tr., iv, 701). 



Barring several minor errors of deduction, L'Hermite's general 

 description of the Yahgans has been confirmed by later writers — 

 a fact that would incline the modern reader to accept as correct the 

 passage just quoted. On the other hand no other explorer has 

 found the stone fishhook in Fuegia, and'such skill in working stone 

 seems to be too advanced for the natives. Is it possible that what 

 L'llermite took for fisliliooks were m reality long-stemmed deeply 

 notched flint arrowheads, or perhaps barbed harpoon heads? The 

 Yahgans often kept arrow heads in their rush baskets, as the "stone 

 fishhooks" were found kept by UHermite. 



A^ets. — The Yahgans do no seine fishing. They, however, some- 

 times take small fish by means of a basket or net very crudely woven 

 with rushes and bark or split twigs, or by means of an ordinary large- 

 mesh basket attached to the end of a harpoon handle (Hyades, q, 

 372, 303), 



The true fish net is found among the Chonos (Goicueta, 518; 

 Byron, a, 134; A, Campbell, 58), the Alacaluf (Sarmiento, Iriarte's 

 ed., 81, 123, An, Mdr., vii, 422, 446; Duclos-Guyot, h, 672; Barclay, 

 a, 66; Th, Bridges, li, 203; Dabbene, 6, 214; Stiibel, ii, pi, x, fig. 10), 

 and the Onas (Th. Bridges, h, 203; Dabbene, h, 250; Beauvoir, h, 

 ill. opp. p. 200; Benignus, 230; C. Gallardo, 202-204; Cojazzi, 57; 

 O. Nordenskjold, j, 125; Lista, h, 127, Onas of south; Segers, 69). 



