BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUNE. Ill 



crossed some patches of dry swamp where the clods had been very 

 extensively turned up by the natives. . . . The whole resembled 

 ground broken up by the hoe." 



With regard to the West Australians, we are informed by Mr. 

 A. C. Gregoi'y* that " the natives of the west coast of Australia 

 are in the habit, amongst other things, of digging up yams as a 

 j)ortion of their means of subsistence. ... In digging up 

 these yams they invariably re-insert the head of the yams so as 

 to be sure of a future crop, but beyond this they do absolutely 

 nothing which may be regarded as a tentative in the direction of 

 cultivating plants for their use." 



I am of opinion that this hoe is not of Australian Aboriginal 

 manufacture, but simply an adoption by the tribe from whom it 

 was obtained of an implement imported from one of the Torres 

 Straits islands in the ordinary way of barter — a well-known 

 practice held by the northern coastal tribes, in common, in fact, 

 with those of the whole Continent. Mr. E. Beardmore speaks of a 

 hoe, almost identical in construction to the present implement, 

 from Mowat, Daudai, New Guinea. He saysf " It is made 

 from a piece of melon shell (Cymbium) inserted into a hole in a 

 rough wooden handle, the shell being wedged in by one or two 

 pieces of wood. . . . This rude hoe is only used on soft 

 ground." D'Albertis also figures! a very similar implement, as a 

 " shell spade," from the interior of New Guinea, as then known, 

 l)ut no definite locality is given. The blade is mounted in a pre- 

 cisely similar manner to our example through a hole in the handle, 

 D'Albertis also figures § two unmounted blades, also identical in 

 character to the present implement, from Moatta, N. Guinea. 



That the present implement is not of Aboriginal manufacture, 

 is, I think, conclusively proved by the drilling of the hole for the 



* Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1887, xvi. p. 131. 



+ Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1890, xix. p. 468. 



t New Guinea, 1880, ii. pi. opp. p. .378, f. 11. 



§ Loc. cit. i. pi. opp. p. 266, f. 12 and 13. 



