NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 47
as a regular thing in their daily work, not the commercial fishing-hooks as we
know them, but the primitive common white thorns, cut from the hedgerows,
which were, when bound in horsehair to the line, in their turn baited in the
ordinary way. It is their usual mode of fishing for flat-fish, and they seem to see
nothing strange or quaint about it. Their mode of operation is to gel two upright
sticks, and thrust them in the ground some eighteen or nineteen yards apart. A
line is stretched from stick to stick, from which line on horsehair hang twenty
hooks two feet six inches apart, duly baited with the worms. Each horsehair
line is composed of eleven twisted hairs. The whole affair may be understood
from the rough sketch."
Lake Dwellings and "Dug-Out" Boat.—Extensive
remains of prehistoric Lake-dwellings exist in the (? alluvial) bed
of the River Save, near Dolina, in Northern Bosnia, which in
interest fall in no way behind the better-known remains of
such settlements in Switzerland, and the record may serve to
illustrate like settlements in the Lea Valley and at Braintree.
The Standard of December 31st, 1901, reported on these Bosnian
dwellings as follows :—
" The excavations made during the year now ending have surpassed all
expectations in regard to the wealth of material obtained for the Bosnian Museum
at Saravejo. Four dwelling-houses built on piles—three of which are well
preserved, while one has been buried—have been laid bare, as well as the burying
place belonging to the settlement, containing a number of fine bronzes and urns.
Numerous products of the potter's art, utensils of staghorn, weapons of bronze
and iron, ornaments of bronze, silver, gold, and amber, seeds, and bones,
compose the chief discoveries made so far. The results of these researches have a
special value, in that they have determined the architectural construction of the
pile dwellings with an accuracy which has seldom been attainable. One of the
most valuable discoveries is a boat five metres long, hollowed out of the trunk of
an oak. This was found lying nine metres below the platform of a pile dwelling,
and must have lain there nearly three thousand years. The work of digging out
this unique object, which can be matched in no Museum of Europe, took six days,
and was so successfully carried out that the boat was brought uninjured to the
Saravejo Museum. The pile dwellings of Dolina belong to two different periods,
and were in existence during the bronze and iron ages."
MISCELLANEA.
A Plea for the Oysters.—In the Times of December 31st,
1902, there is a letter signed "Susan Eliza Helena Martin,
L.S.A., L.L.A.," with the above heading. The writer remarks
that "Few people know how to prepare oysters for the table
properly; if they did the fear of typhoid would be very remote
indeed." The directions are as follows :—
" First immerse the shells in a large tub of pure, cold water, and allow some to
run over them for a few minutes, perfectly cleansing them. Then drain the water