EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING. 53 
he would be to-day, the lucky possessor of the Kohinoor dia- 
monds? Let us then suppose that the Lacustrine fisherman who 
lost this hook in the Bienne Lake, was a dilettanti sportsman, as 
nicely equipped as would be to-day say a swell-member of the 
Southside Club. The hook I have called your attention to has 
a flange to which the line was tied. The bend of this hook is 
quite perfect, and the turn or draft so well devised as to throw 
the point of the barb in the line of the hauling. The principle 
of fishing with a hook, then, was thoroughly understood. You 
will find among the hooks the regular pin-hook. It may have 
belonged to the Lacustrine small boy, who stole a hairpin from 
his fond mother, and giving it an artistic bend, played truant, 
and went bobbing for eels. Maybe there was a pre-historic 
Seth Green, who invented then a barbless hook. 
These Lacustrine people, who lived in houses built on piles 
on the Swiss lakes, must have been essentially a fishing-people. 
If they did not enjoy the benefits of a Fish-Cultural Associa- 
tion, they possibly knew quite as much about the propagation 
of eels as we do. 
You will observe that some of the hooks are double, just as 
we make them to-day. In fact there is nothing new under the 
sun, not even perhaps the famous sockdolager hook. 
In calling to your notice the fishing implements used in past 
ages, I can show you what is supposed to be the earliest device for 
catching fish yet known. It is the most primitive of all snares. 
This is a piece silex, double-pointed, belonging to the neolithic 
age. The cord was tied in the middle, and when baited the fish 
swallowed it and was gorged. As to its age, I should be afraid 
‘to state it. Possibly it caught fish long before the alluvium 
covered certain portions of Switzerland, maybe before Europe 
and Africa had no Strait of Gibraltar to let out the Mediterra- 
nean Sea. This method of catching fish by a cross-piece is not 
yet entirely out of use. M. de la Blanchere tells as that in 
France a similar form of instrument is used for catching eels. 
A straight piece of elder is taken, a needle pointed in both sides 
is passed through it; this is baited, and so eels are caught. You 
see what an important role eels play in the history of the 
world. 
