289 



NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE 

 WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS. 



By R. Etheridge, Jun., &c. 



(Palaeontologist to the Australian Museum, and Geological 

 SuRVE"x of N. S. Wales.) 



ii. — Additional Remarks on Mika-Knives. 



(Plates xi.-xii., figs. 8, 9, 10.) 



At the last meeting of the Society I described a stone knife 

 from the Mulligan River, believed to be that used in the Mika 

 operation, and furnished to me by Mr. H. S. W. Crummer, of the 

 Lands Department. Since then my colleague, Mr. J. Brazier, has 

 recalled to my notice a very complete set of these knives in the 

 Australian Museum from North Queensland, presented by Mr^ 

 Dunlops. The chief points of interest about these knives lie in 

 their closer resemblance to the figure given by Lumholtz*, to 

 which reference was made in my last paper, than the knife therein 

 described by me. This resemblance consists in the presence of 

 bark sheaths, a wooden handle to one, and an apical ornament 

 of bird's feathers to another. 



The knives are five in number, the stone heads being all of the 

 same type, angular in the middle line of one face, or sometimes 

 facetted, flat on the other, and composed of a dense fine altered 

 siliceous rock. In one instance the angular ridge is replaced by a 

 long central facet, but in the other four the angularity is strongly 

 marked, whilst considerable difi:erence also exists in the propor- 

 tions of the knives. One is very short and rather thick, one 



* "Among Cannibals," 1890, p. 48. 



