They are captured today with hooks of the style
upon which fishermen of the Homeric age depended.
From the appearance of the camps, and the age of the islander who took
part in the various searches, and who was ready to admit that though
pearl-shell hooks were used when he was a piccaninny he had never seen
one made, I judge the age of these relics of a prehistoric art to be
between thirty and forty years.
This boy has supplied samples of hooks made by himself with the aid of
files, etc., in imitation of the old style, being careful to explain
that the old men made them much better than any one could in these
degenerate days of steel. Two of these modern hooks bound to bark lines
are illustrated. What was the origin of the peculiar pattern of the
pearl-shell fish-hooks? To this question, those who maintain that no
handiwork of man exists which does not borrow from nature, or from
something precedent to itself, may find a satisfactory answer offhand.
As it weathers on the beach, the basal valve of the commonest of the
oysters, of these waters occasionally assumes a crude crescent. Indeed,
several of these fragments have at odd times attracted attention, for
they have so closely resembled pearl-shell hooks in the rough that
second glances have been necessary to dispose of the illusion that they
were actually rejects from some old-time camp.
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