FISH-HOOKS OF WOOD FROM FRANCE.
31
The Clabeou or Claveau (Fig. 2) is made out of a small White-thorn
(Crataegus oxyacantha) thorn on a portion of the stem, which is cut into a point
at the bottom, and has a groove cut round it to admit of the passage of a
double thread which is kept in position near the point by a slip-knot, and is
then fastened at the base of the thorn.
These wooden fish-hooks, which the majority of our amateur fishermen
prefer to steel fish-hooks, are used as I have just said, for eel-fishing. The
vinedresser sets to work in the following way; the hooks, to the number
often of several dozen, are baited with earthworms, which are stuck on until
the wood is completely covered up ; the end opposite the thread is fastened to
a small stick 30 or 40 centimetres long which the fisher plunges entirely in
the damp soil at the river's edge at low tide. The water rises and covers the
fishing rod, and a little before flood-tide they go to see whether "the eel has
bitten" (local term).
Some sportsmen have assured me that they have seen on the sand banks
and shores of the islands on the lower Gironde, wooden fish-hooks longer
than the "hains," which are hidden by pieces of liver or ox "lights," and with
these the natives catch wild ducks and curlews.
M. Daleau then goes on to describe some exceedingly inter-
esting finds in Cave-deposits of Marcamps (Gironde) of small
objects made of Elephant (Mammoth ?) ivory (Fig. 3) which he
very logically considers to be the pre-historic ancestors of the
"Hain" used by the peasants of the same district in the present
day.
When I had read this most interesting paper I wrote at
once to our old friend "Tom" in Essex asking him if he had
ever used any other kind of wooden hooks than those he had
already sent me.
His prompt reply very much astonished me, for he enclosed
a few specimens of a gorge (Fig. 4) which he stated he formerly
used ; but after further enquiries on my part he could give no
reason for doing so, nor did he know where he got the idea from.
A more interesting case of unconscious heredity I have never met
with.
As regards the other remarkable coincidences in M.
Daleau's report, I can only add that he was as much interested
to hear of a similar survival in our country as I was to hear of
the use of the Essex wooden hooks in the valley of the Gironde.
Note.—I shall be glad to be informed of other records of
similar hooks from any part of the world, or to receive any
observations upon this interesting subject.