I 6 Bulletin Santa Barbara Society of Natural History. Vol. I. 



certain as to whether the Indians were acquainted with 

 the methods of catching fish with nets, and the proba- 

 bilities are that the Europeans first taught the use of 

 nets to the aborigines. If such is the case, then the 

 "plummets" were certainly not sinkers. 



As for the great size of the larger one being no ob- 

 jection to their use as sinkers, it may be doubted if 

 they (the Indians) knew how, or cared to fish with nets. 



They had their certain seasons for fishing, when they 

 knew where to find them and how to catch them. At 

 other times they would be in other localities, hunting 

 other food materials in their season. 



A few of the grooved stones and notched pebbles 

 classed as undoubted net sinkers have been found in 

 California. Fig. 22 represents one from Bodega, Cal. 

 Mieht not some of them have been used as war-clubs 



o 



or hammers? And were not the grooves made for 

 the purpose of attaching handles of withes ? Their 

 shape would indicate their use in some of their man- 

 ufactures, whereas a "net sinker" would not require to 

 be made after any particular pattern; anything possess- 

 ing the requisite weight, and of any form that could be 

 attached to the net, would have answered the purpose. 



If the Indians did not fish with nets, these "un- 

 doubted net sinkers" were not "net sinkers," and if 

 used in fishing at all they were line sinkers. The In- 

 dian Rafael, who will be referred to hereafter, when 

 shown the implement represented by Fig. 22, said that 

 it was used as a line sinker for fishing. 



In "Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Ten- 

 nessee," by Joseph Jones, M. D., published by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, under the head of "Stones 

 Employed for Mechanical Purposes," is a figure and 

 description of a plummet of black magnetic iron, high- 

 ly polished, with a hole through the upper end; and he 

 supposes that this, together with a number of similar 

 implements which have been found in Middle Tennes- 

 see in the cultivated soil, and also in the stone graves, 

 were used in spinning threads and in weaving. He 

 says: "It has been suggested that they may also have 



