170 A SECOND UNDESCRIBED FORM OF WOMERAH, 



A SECOND UNDESORIBED FORM OF WOMERAH 

 FROM NORTHERN AUSTRALIA. 



By R. Etheridge, Junr., &c. 



(Palaeontologist to the Australian Museum and Geological 

 Survey of N. S. Wales.) 



(Plate III.) 



Since I read a short Note to the Society on a Woraerah from 

 Northern Queensland,* Mr. Charles Hedley has been instrumental 

 in obtaining for me the loan of a second form of this weapon from 

 the Rev. George Brown, secretary to the Australasian Methodist 

 Mission, pi'esumedly undescribed, and believed by the latter to 

 come from North Queensland.! 



The history of the specimen is as follows : — It was collected 

 about four years ago, by the late Captain Alex. Craig, of the ship 

 " Princess Louise." The ship was wrecked, the Captain killed on 

 a subsequent voyage, and the log lost. On the voyage on which 



* P.L.S.N.S. W. 1892, vi. (2), Pt. 4, p. 699. 



t Additional Note. — 14/7/92.— Mr. Hedley and myself have found, since 

 the publication of my Paper, a brief record of this womerah by the late 

 John Macgillivray, who says : — " The throwing-stick in use at Cape York 

 extends down the N.E. coast as far as Lizard Island. . . . It is made 

 of casuarina wood, and is generally three feet in length, an inch and a 

 quarter broad, and half an inch thick. At the end a double slip of melon 

 shell, three and a half inches long, crossing diagonally, serves as a handle, 

 and when used the end rests against the palm of the right hand, the three 

 last fingers grasp the stick, and the fore finger and thumb loosely retain 

 the spear." [Narr. Voy. H.M.S. Rattlesnake during the years 1846-18^0, 

 I. 1852, p. 18.) This reference thus enables us to extend the range of this 

 womerah throughout the Cape York Peninsula, the Gilbert River being 

 situated at its extreme base. — R. E., .Tun. 



