82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 30 • 



But when this rounded model (made from two pieces of a cigar 

 box, glued together flatwise, but with a sheet of paper between 

 them) is split apart, thus, we have two boomerangr., each flat on 

 one side and round on the other, and in this simple change of 

 configuration they possess the quality of returning flight to a 

 surprising degree. In this shape they are fit for use only in 

 sport. 



In the course of time discoverers reached Australia, and it is 

 not to be wondered at that the earlier descriptions do not dis- 

 criminate between these two distinct shapes and uses of the 

 boomerang. In an old engraving published by J. Stockdale, 

 London, 1798, it is named a " wooden sword." Also a drawing 

 by Lesseur in Peron's Atlas calls it "Sabre a' ricochet " ; while 

 Dawson calls it the " boomerang or stick with which they throw 

 their spears." Another early explorer, Mr. Ogle, enlightens us 

 by stating that " in every part of this great continent of Aus- 

 tralia they have the koilee or boomerang (which the ancient 

 Egyptians possessed). . . . It is used by them in skinning 

 animals they have killed." 



Did the cunning savage purj)osely mislead enquirers? At all 

 events it turns out that there is a wonderful diversity of opinion 

 as to what are its really requisite points of construction, as well 

 as to what is uses were. For instance, we read from the 

 " Natural History of Man." by J. G.Wood, M.A.,F.L.S., etc., 

 that "the various ])oiuts which constitute the excellence of the 

 missile are so slight, that there is scarcely an European that can 

 see them . . . ." And he speaks at length of the wonderful 

 care and whole days of patience required to make a good one, 

 and of the powerful effect produced by a single chip in the 

 making. 



It is surprising to note how mere irregularities, inseparable 

 from the crude work of the savage, have, under the miscroscopic 

 gaze of investigators, been magnified into all-important essen- 

 tials. 



For instance, no less an authority than Lieut.-Col. Sir Thomas 

 Livingstone Mitchell, Surveyor-General of Australia, who 

 studied the boomerang minutely, was the Jir^t to discover (1846) 

 in the uneven splitting of the bent limb, of which it was usually 

 made, its hitherto deeply hidden secret, as he thought at least, 

 viz. : That this uneven splitting was in reality a carefully icroiight 

 screw-shape warp or tivist, whence its wonderful powers. 



Sir Thomas (like some of the rest of us) had an eye to bene- 

 fiting mankind, and he applied what he called the " Boomerang 

 Principle" to a new form of proj^eller for steam vessels, and 

 actually patented the same in England and America in 1818. 



