SWANTON] INIDIAN'S OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 335 



"built in the water with great reeds, so well and cunningly set to- 

 gether after the fashion of labyrinth, with many turns and crooks, 

 which it was impossible to construct without much skill and indus- 

 try." (French, 1875, p. 172; Swanton, 1922, pp. 357-358.) These are 

 noted also by Hariot, Smith, Strachey, and Lawson. 



A longer description of the inland fish weir and its use is given by 

 Adair, who says: 



The Indians have the art of catching fish in long crails, made with canes 

 and hickory splinters, tapering to a point. They lay these at a fall of water, 

 where stones are placed in two sloping lines from each bank, till they meet 

 together in the middle of the rapid stream, where the intangled fish are soon 

 drowned. Above such a place, I have known them to fasten a wreath of long 

 grape vines together, to reach across the river, with stones fastened at proper 

 distances to rake the bottom; they will swim a mile with it whooping, and 

 plunging all the way, driving the fish before them into their large cane pots. 

 With this draught, which is a very heavy one, they make a town feast, or 

 feast of love, of which every one partakes in the most social manner, and 

 afterward they dance together. (Adair, 1775, p. 403.) 



Though he says nothing of the rock approaches. Speck has the 

 following description of a Yuchi trap such as was used in connec- 

 tion with them : 



These were quite large, being ordinarily about three feet or more in diameter 

 and from six to ten feet in length. They were cylindrical in shape, with one 

 end open and an indented funnel-shaped passageway leading to the interior. 

 The warp splints of this indenture ended in sharp points left free. As these 

 pointed inward they allowed the fish to pass readily in entering, but offered an 

 obstruction to their exit. The other end of the trap was closed up, but the 

 covering could be removed to remove the contents. Willow sticks composed 

 the warp standards, while the wicker filling was of shaved hickory splints. 

 The trap was weighted down in the water and chunks of meat were put in for 

 bait. (Speck, 1909, p. 25.) 



Timberlake saw such a weir in the Cherokee country. 



Building two walls obliquely down the river from either shore, just as they 

 are near joining, a passage is left to a deep well or reservoir ; the Indians then 

 scaring the fish down the river, close to the mouth of the reserv<)ir with a large 

 bush, or bundle made on purpose, and it is no difficult matter to take them with 

 baskets, when inclosed within so small a compass. (Timberlake, Williams ed., 

 1927, p. 69.) 



My Creek informant, Jackson Lewis, said that his father once made 

 a trap which fish would come up and fall into, and it may have been 

 something on the order of the weir just described, although the word- 

 ing implies rather something entered by fish ascending against the 

 current. 



Remains of rock fishweirs are widely scattered in and near the 

 southern Appalachians. Haywood (1823, pp. 88-89) mentions one a 

 few miles from Flat Lick, Whitley (now Knox) County, Ky. W. E. 

 Myer (1928, p. 782) observed the vestige of such a trap on Obey River, 

 near the mouth of Eagle Creek in the mountains of Pickett County, 



