30 INTRODUCTION 
water being boiled in a house, because “‘ this is bad for the 
fishing.” Frazer suggests that the Commandment in Exodus 
xxxiv. 26, ‘‘ Not to seethea kid in its mother’s milk,’’ embodies 
a like illustration.! 
From carvings, whether executed for purposes of amusement 
or of magic, and from specimens found in the débvis of the 
stations, we derive our knowledge of the earliest implements 
and methods employed in Perigord and elsewhere for taking fish. 
A study of these warrants, to my mind, the conclusion that 
only two weapons can be traceably attributed to Paleolithic 
Man. First and pre-eminent the Spear (or Harpoon with its 
various congeners) with possibly adjustable flint-heads, and 
second, but to a far less extent, the Gorge, or as it has been 
better termed, “‘ the bait-holder.’’ 
Of a Troglodyte Net no representation exists, no specimen 
survives. The absence of an actual specimen can perhaps be 
explained by the perishable nature of the fibres or wythes used 
for its construction. 
The undeniable survival of pieces of Nets among the lake 
dwellers seems somewhat to negative the explanation.2 But 
these may have survived because of the presence, while those of 
the Paleolithic Age may have perished because of the absence 
of some preservative power in the substance in which they were 
embedded. 
The absence from the latter and the presence in the former 
débris of Net sinkers, etc., strongly, if not conclusively, cor- 
roborate Broca’s conclusion that the Cave men of the Vézére 
Valley and elsewhere were strangers to the Net. 
We possess, in my opinion, no evidence of Hooks (as 
1 W.H. Dall, “ Social Life among the Aborigines,” The American Naturalist 
(1878), vol. xii. J. G. Frazer, Folk Lore in the Old Testament (London, 1918), 
vol. iii. p. 123. 
2 See Dr. F. Keller’s The Lake Dwellers in Switzerland (translated, London, 
1878, by John Edward Lee), vol. ii. pl. 136, fig. 2. This net of cord with 
meshes not quite three-eighths of an inch in width was almost certainly made, 
it was certainly well suited, for fishing. Another example with meshes 
two inches wide, probably formed part of a hunting net. R. Munro, The 
Lake Dwellings of Europe (London, 1890), p. 504, mentions fishing-nets from 
Robenhausen and Vinetz—both belonging to the late Neolithic Age. 
Q. Schrader, Reallewikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde (Strassburg, 
rgo1), p. 242, records ‘‘remains of nets” in the Stone Age settlements of 
Denmark and Sweden, which he classes as fishing nets. 
