Evening star., 1898-08-27
PREHISTORIC BOYS
Did Not Have Any Elaborate Fish
ing Tackle.
ANGLED WITH THEIR BONE HOOKS
Salmon Was the Favorite Catch
for the Cave DWeller.
S o M E FIS II T A L E

Copyright, 1898, by the International Literary and
News Seryice.)
Written for The Evening Star.
! His home was a cave, and he ate what
| ever he could catch and kill. If the pre-
| historic man wore garments of any kind
| there is no evidence to show it. In cav
| erns in southern Europe his bones have
| been found with those of the cave bear,
the cave tiger, the aurock and smaller ami
| mails. That the cave was his home is
! shown by rude implements of stone and
| bone found with his remains. That he lived
| largely by the chase is evident, and his
| diet no doubt was varied by edible roots
and by wild fruits and plants In their sea-
son. And two of the small variety of i'm
| plements that he possessed reveal also the
TACT that he had a taste for sea food and
| went a-hShng.
In the Smithsonian Institution collection
| of Indian weapons and utensils are specf-
! mems of the hook with which the Eskimos
| of Norten sound, Alaska, catch birds, the
| gulls and murres, which are part of their
| food, the same kind of hook they formerly
| used in catching fish. This hook, which, in
| TACT, is not a nook at all, but a straight,
| slender piece of bone, is the thickest in the
| middle and pointed sharply at each end.
| Around the middle is groove, to which
the ESKIMO fastens a short cord of braided
grass. He bats the hook with small fish
put on lengthwiSe, and ties the line to his
tfaWi. When fish or bird swallows the
minnow the bone, turning crosswise in the
| throat, cannot be dissorged, and the crea-
ture Is captured. In cave in southern
| france, with other prehistoric relics, have
| Deen found several bone hooks of this pat
| tern, though less perfect in shape than
| those of the Eskimo. AT Madelaine, France
| ana Zurich, Switzerland, there have been
| discovered harpoons of reindeer horn of
| sin'iar shape and size to those used by
tne G Eskimos in spearing fish today.
| mere Is another evidence that clinches
ihat OF the hook and harpoon, as to pre-
historic nshermen. The cave dweller had
an artistic trait considerably in advance
oi MS general mental and moral develop
ment He had a fancy for making drs W
ihss OF thlngs that interested him. engray-
ing them with a pointed flint or boars
lush upon an aurock's skull or piece of
eciapeo reindeer horn. In the caves
Whlch he frequented are pictures of earn
ana salmon, and one picture a great deaI
out OF drawing" it must be said renre-
senls man selling great fish. a Dor
polse or whale, by the lower posterior
with Spear and Hook
mere Is reason for thinking that salmon.
"hlch IN early days came into the French
llue-rlVers, were the favorite fish of the
prehistoric cave man, and that he timed
MS own nigrations to fit with their running
~ N'Ad No"ii Tic streams. Ihere Is evil
dence that he had nets or boats and he
must have speared and hooked his fish
from the shore or rocks or Waded about
for them. Shell fish were a fayorite food
with prehistoric man. With his family and
trlbesmen he camped for long periods on
the edge of tide4water in places where the
vast shell heaps, known to ethnologists as
kitchen middens are found today In these
neaps. among the shells, are found bones of
quadrupeds. large and small, including
those of the dog, and various implements
and utensils, the most common implements
found being the fakes or fiat, sharpened
purposes.
OF a more advanced type than the cave
men were the ancient lake dwellers, who
pullt their settlements on piles over the
water out from the shores of the Swiss
lakes. They were boatmen who took fish
with nets and lines, speared them, and shot
them with arrows. Their hooks, made from
bone and from boar's tusks were well
| curved and usually without barb, the ang-
Ter relying upon the suddenness with which
he pulled the fish from the water to land it
before it could wriggle free from the hook.
There is general similarity in all the fish
hooks of this epoch, found in the places
frequented by prehistoric man In different
parts of Europe from Italy to Norway.
Latest among the prehistoric people ap-
peared the barbed bronze hook with ring
at the end of the shaft for attaching the
line, 1t being in shape and size much like
the hooks used by sea fishermen within a
The peoples of the new world at the time
of its discovery by Europeans, speared fish
and also caught them with line and hook
Their hooks of bone or deer horn were
massive, strong affairs, sometimes barbed
and all having a knob at the end of the
shank, to which the line could be securely
attached. In general the Indian preferred
10 spear his fish, and sometimes he shot
them with arrows. Fish also were trapped
in various ways, especially in the season of
their running in the rivers.
This Sport Not Fair.
At what is now Etowah, Ga, the old
Spanish explorer. fernando de Soto. and his
companions were enterts ined by a caciuue
who had great fish preserve, a canal lead
ing from the river Grande to a lake and en-
circlng his town. Up from the river into
the canal the fish came plentifully on their
way to the lake. and the cacique and his
chief man selected and captured them at
their pleasure. At Fish creek near Sara
tcga, N. Y, the Indians once had a fish pen
made by fencing marsh on one side which
the creek overflow ed at high water. On the
subsistence of the waters the fish were left
aground in water so shallow that they
could easily be captured. After the coming
of the white settlers the shad and herring
still ran up the creek SO plentifully that it
was said that the women could dip them up
in their aprons.
Along the st. Lawrence river the Mon
taignais Indians were famous catchers of
eels. According to the account of the early
missionaries their traps were great wicker
baskets, each of which would hold 500 or
600 eels. These were sunk in the ground
on floats by the river and channel walled
with rock led from the stream to them
In the season when eels were ascending
the river the Indians of a morning would
often find the trap filled with them. An
other way they had of taking cells was to
spear them at night from a canoe with a
light in the bow. Two Indians, one pad
ding. the other handling the spear, would
get 800 eels in this way in one night The
ees, split and dressed, were hung up in a
house and smoked for keeping. and thew
formed an important article of food with
the Montaignais, at a season when other
provisions were scarce.
Early Clambakes.
All along the Atlantic coast of North
America, as far south as Mexico, the In
dians Of the interior were, accustomed at
certain seasonssqof the year to visit the
seashore to catch and eat shellfsh. In the
region which is now Tennessee and parts
of the adjoining states the Indians were
fond Of the mussels which abound in GER
tain localities there, and they made yearly
trips to feed on them. On the California
desert the Mohaves used hooks made ty
nd