Abstract
Shell Fish-hooks of the Californian Coast THE Bernice P. Bishop Museum Papers for May 1942 include a useful account by Eugene Robinson of the types of shell fish-hooks in use on the Californian coast, and of the method of their manufacture. These hooks from the Santa Barbara Channel are of the circular type familiar in Polynesia and Micronesia, and are made by means of chert drills and stone files from pieces of shell cut to a flat pear-shape. Mr. Robinson explains how the circular hook, which looks so unpromising to a European fisherman, works in practice and is so satisfactory that steel hooks of similar pattern are sold in the stores of Honolulu. There must be no striking with these hooks; the fish hooks itself, and, with a gentle tension on the line, the hook turns over through the thin tissues at the edge of the fish's mouth, securing it more safely than an ordinary steel hook with a barb.
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RESEARCH ITEMs. Nature 152, 419–420 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152419a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152419a0