Abstract
III.
Our Troglodytes of the latest epoch had, in fishing, another resource unknown to their predecessors. Their different stations contain a large number of fish bones; but it is remarkable that all these fish were salmon. Now the salmon in these days neither frequent the Vezere nor the part of Dordogne where that river joins the sea. At some leagues below the confluence, not far from La-linde, in the centre of Dordogne, there is a bank of rocks, which, at high water, forms a rapid, and at low water a regular fall, called, The Leap of the Gratusse. The salmon do not pass this boundary, and, as it did not stop them at the epoch of the Troglodytes, we must conclude t hat, since that time, the level of the Dordogne has fallen, either by hollowing out its bed so as to lay bare the bank of rocks, or by losing part of its volume of water. We are led to believe that the fishermen of that time did not use nets, for with a net could be caught fish of all sizes. We thus understand why they could only catch large fish, and why they chose, among these, the kind they preferred. Had they any fishing boats? We have as yet found no proof of such. And besides, the Vezere is sufficiently enclosed for the large fish to swim along the banks within reach of the harpoons.
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The Troglodytes of the Vezere * . Nature 7, 366–369 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/007366b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/007366b0