BY C. HEDLEY. 289 



Under different forms the palu hook can be traced from the 

 South Central Pacific, through the Gilberts and Marshalls to the 

 Carolines. South ana west of this there is but occasional 

 evidence of its occurrence in the area inhabited by Melanesian 

 races; an aberrant type has been figured from Fiji by Edge- 

 Partington and another variation from the Louisiades by Mac- 

 gillivray. Nearer than any, both in form and in geographical 

 position, to that we are aliout to consider, is a specimen shown 

 by Finsch from the Trobriands.* This, also without a barb, 

 corresponds in size, in the hook which terminates the barb limb 

 and in the other limb being of even thickness throughout. 



The present hook (figs. 1, 2) was obtained by Mr. iSTorman 

 Hardy, specimens from whose collection have so frequently been 

 the subject of communication to this Society, and who has kindly 

 entrusted it to me for description. He recently purchased it in 

 Samarai, British New Guinea, from a trader who said that it 

 came from Milne Bay. 



This hook reached me unfortunately without the barb; it 

 weighs a pound and a half, in total length it is nineteen inches, 

 and in greatest breadth seven and a half. The two limbs are 

 nearly squ.are in section, of equal length, twelve inches, the elbow 

 from which they branch is bulbous, especially in profile. The 

 hook limb is much scratched half way down on its outer side by 

 the gnawing of captured fishes ; seven inches from the end the 

 limb is cut down to a small shoulder, obsolete on the inner side; 

 this certainly has reference to the length of the barb. The head 

 of the barb-limb terminates in a chin directed towards the other 

 limb and evidently intended to fit against the barb. As I have 

 shown in discussing the subject elsewhere, local characteristics 

 reside in the method of applying the barb to the shank. Though 

 the barb itself is lacking and though I have no information 

 relating to it, I have ventured to suggest its probable size and 

 position by dotted lines in the accompanying illustration (fig. 1 ). 



* Finsch, Ethnological Atlas, 188S, PI. ix. f. 9. 



