38 
FISHES. 
effective^ which cannot be classed under either i 
of the three heads which we have named, being ! 
neither net, spear^ nor hook. The last-named, 
however, in some form or other, is the principal 
device employed, and, strange as it may appear, 
notwithstanding all the superiority in art, and all 
the advantage of metals possessed by Europeans, 
the native-made hooks are preferred, as far more 
effective than ours. Many of them are really 
beautiful productions, and, when we consider their 
total want of metallic tools, excite our astonish- 
ment at the skill and ingenuity of the manufac- 
turers. Our hooks are all made on one pattern, 
however varying in size ; but the forms of theirs 
are exceedingly various, and made of different 
substances, viz., wood, shell, and bone. The 
hooks made with wood are curious ; some are 
exceedingly small, not more than two or three 
inches in length, but remarkably strong ; others 
are large. The wooden hooks are never barbed, 
but simply pointed, usually curved inwards at 
the point, but sometimes standing out very wide, 
occasionally armed at the point with a piece of 
bone. The best are hooks ingeniously made of 
the small roots of the aito-tree, or iron-wood ! 
{Casuarina). In selecting a root for this purpose, 
they choose one partially exposed, and growing 
by the side of a bank, preferring such as are free 
from knots and other excrescences. The root 
is twisted into the shape they wish the future 
hook to assume, and allowed to grow till it has ; 
reached a size large enough to allow of the out- 
side or soft parts being removed, and a sufficiency 
remaining to form the hook. Some hooks thus 
prepared are not much thicker than a quill, and 
