444 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER 



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to their arrows, but still no feather. The Aru Islanders have 

 both notch and feather.* 



The Humboldt Bay arrows further are excessively long, far 

 too long for the bows, being five feet in length, so that not more 

 than half of their length can be drawn. They are rather small 

 spears thrown by a clumsy bow for short distances than arrows. 

 They go with immense force for a certain distance, but only fly 

 straight for ten or a dozen yards, wobbling and turning over 

 after that length of flight. 



As the anchor was being got up, when the ship's screw was 

 beginning to turn, two natives, who happened to be close to it 

 in a canoe, drew their bows hastily on it as if it were some 

 monster about to attack them from under water. 



In the Humboldt Bay stone choppers, the stone blade is 

 mounted in the end of a long wooden socket piece which is 

 fitted into a round hole at the end of the club-like handle. The 

 socket piece can thus be turned round so that the blade can be 

 set to be used like that of either an axe or an adze. 



The handle and socket piece form nearly a right angle with 

 one another, and the socket piece is so long that the whole seems 

 a most clumsy arrangement, and it is most difficult to strike a 

 blow with it with any precision. 



The shorter the socket piece the easier it is to direct the 

 blade with certainty in a blow. In Polynesia generally the stone 

 blades are thus fixed close up to the ends of the handles, but in 

 New Guinea this curious long-legged angular handle is in vogue. 

 It is difficult to understand the reason, unless these natives 

 began with a chisel and mallet ; and having got so far in im- 

 provement as to join them together, have not yet discovered 

 the advantage to be gained by shortening up the socket piece. 



A curious stone implement, similarly mounted to the chopper, 

 was common in most of the Humboldt Bay canoes. It seems to 

 be a kind of hammer. The stone head is cylindrical in form 

 tapering to fit the socket at one end, and hollowed slightly on 

 the striking face. The exact use of the implement is uncertain. 



* For the distribution and various forms of bows and arrows, see Gen. 

 Lane Fox, F.R.S., &c, " On Primitive Warfare." Journ. of United Service 

 Inst, 186 7-9. 



