466 



W. Thalbitzer 



It has not been explained, why the use of fish-hooks has been 

 given up at Ammassalik. According to Hanserak's diary fish-hooks 

 were in use further south on the east coast, for example, at Umanak, 

 some few days' journey south of the large fjord complex at Cape 

 Dan. A man from there told him, that there were quantities of the 

 Greenland halibut and sea-perch (Sebastes) there, which were caught 

 on hooks through the ice. The lines were prepared by cutting up 

 the skin of the fjord seal into strips and as hooks the narrow bones 

 in the hind paw of the seal were used with an iron hook attached. 

 After fishing they could return home with the sledge fully loaded 

 with fish^). 



Fishing with hooks is well-known in West Greenland and has often 

 been described. John Davis mentioned already, that the natives in 



West Greenland came and presented 

 him with cod-fish^). Olearius de- 

 scribes their hooks in detail: "They 

 are not of iron, but of fish (i. e. seal) 

 bone, which they know well how to 

 shape with care; they call these 

 hooks karlusa."'^) In Hans Egede's 

 report a generation later, on the other 

 hand, we find: "In fishing they prefer 

 to use hooks of iron, sometimes also 

 ^^^^ of bone." It can be understood that 

 W We U^tS ^^^ frequent summer visits of Enro- 



ll f I Mi peans (Dutch) on their whale fishing 



expeditions have brought a good deal 

 of iron to the natives. (But they 

 already knew the value of this in 



'^ ^ф/ т 



a 



Fig. 173. Stone sinkers and decoys 

 for fishing. (Petersen coll.). ^!i. 



Davis' time as there was nothing in 



the ship they were so inclined to 

 steal as iron). Egede continues: "Their fishing lines are narrow 

 and thin strips, cut from whalebone, with which kind of apparatus 

 they can more readily catch fish than we with our hemp-lines"^) 

 — Glahn describes their sea-scorpion lines, on which they usually 

 attach the web of the guillemot's foot or of other bird which has 

 red legs, as bait. He distinguishes between two kinds, the longer 

 lines used by those who fish in the kaiak, and the shorter used by 

 those who fish on the ice (with hooks)'). O. Fabricius gives as usual 



1) Hanserak's Dagbog (1884—1885) MS. fasc. 2. Cf. S. Rink's edition (1900) p. 11. 



-) J.Davis, Second Voyage (1586; p. 395. (Hakluyt: Principal Navigations VII, 1904). 



Я) Olearius (KiôO) p. 173. 



^) H. Egede (1729) p. 32. (1741) pp. 59 (50. 



b) Glahn (1771J p. 129. 



