In the rock pool

With Dum's woman Yum and Dong now friends and helping each other with their children. Dum and Grunt (Dong's husband) also went out hunting together.

The women decided that they too would collect fruit and shellfish and Dum and Grunt could catch animals and birds and even fish if they could work out how to snare them.

As the women wandered off together, on the beach the men found the freshwater streams from the hills entering the sea as the sea tried to push the water back upstream again.

Dum suddenly had an idea to make a pond where river met the sea and this might leave any fish in the shallows stranded in the pond when the tide went out.

So they built a rock and pebble wall that would be under the sea at high tide but would retain the fresh water when the tide went out. They went home that night with grins on their faces with a haul of fish knowing that they would get more than a good feed that night.

Dum and Grunt told their wives about the fish trap and said as they had made it the women should collect the fish when the tide went out and tell the other wives they could take some themselves afterwards. It took some time for the other women in the cave to understand as they would go there when the tide was out when it was empty. When they saw Yum and Dong carrying back fish each day they got in the habit of following them down and waiting to get their share.

This is another episode in the Caveman series I wrote many years ago. More to come if requested!

Word count 264

Image shows a prehistoric fish trap still existing in Australia