BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUN. 369 



gives* an illustration of a similar head, made of an identical rock, 

 mounted with gum at the end of a handle made of a single piece. 

 The entire weapon, handle and head, only measures eight inches 

 in length, and is therefore much smaller than the present form. 

 It is called by Smyth a " stone knife," and is used by the inhabi- 

 tants of Booloo and Cooper's Creek. Amongst the Mika-knives 

 presented to the Australian Museum by Mr. Dunlops is an 

 unhafted blade, preserved in a bark sheath, made of a similar 

 granular, flesh-coloured quartzite to the above, but having the 

 proportions of the other undoubted Mika-knives, and not of the 

 present w^eapons. It is much too coarse in texture, and rough on 

 the edge, to be employed in a similar manner, and is, therefore, in 

 all probability, a smaller unmounted example of the present 

 hatchet. It is four and a half inches long by two wide. 



The method of hafting clearly marks these M'eapons as axes, or 

 hatchets, but the entire departure from the ordinary form of Mogo, 

 or tomakawk, is a very interesting point. The two halves of the 

 handles are twice tied, as is usual in such weapons, but in the 

 middle and at the end, instead of under the head and at the end. 



vii. — Ston<i axe-heads from the Lennard River, King's Sound, 



N. W. Australia. 



(Plate XIV., fig. 15.) 

 I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W. W. Froggatt for an 

 opportunity of describing a suite of five stone axe-heads from the 

 Lennard River, obtained by him during his late collecting tour in 

 that district. The axe-heads are all of one type, and formed from 

 selected oblong flattened pebbles. They are all more or less 

 ground towards the cutting extremity, but it would appear that 

 the original ;,hickness and bulk of the pebbles has been reduced by 

 knocking oflF flakes, especially in the two smaller specimens. Two 

 still bear traces of the gum used for mounting them in their 

 handles, and one is very slightly grooved for the reception of its 

 hafting. The stones employed are a dense black basalt, but before 

 manipulation the pebbles had evidently undergone much fluviatile 

 action. The measurements of the three largest are as follows : — 

 * "Aborigines of Victoria," 1878, II., p. 380, f. 200. 



