NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 537 



" Having discovered the shells were not distributed through the 

 sandy mass, it became evident to me that the mounds had no 

 connection with a raised beach ; and I determined to make a careful 

 examination to ascertain their real nature. In this examination 

 I was ably assisted by my friends Messrs. John and Isaac Scobie. 

 One afternoon's search resulted in the discovery of four stone 

 tomahawks, a large number of flints, and some fragmentary bones, 

 and ashes, intermixed with the shelly mass. 



" Further exploration was continued by my friends by trenching 

 across the mounds ; in this way more tomahawks and jQints were 

 found, and, more interesting still, several oblong spaces seven feet 

 in length by two feet in width enclosed by stones. They took 

 these spaces to mark out the sites of graves, and sank down a 

 depth of five feet in search of remains, but failed to find any. 

 As the sinking in this sand would be very easy, the distance sunk 

 is insufficient test, and I hope to make a fuller examination in 

 this direction in the near future. 



"The shells, consisting as they do almost exclusively of the 

 larger kinds which were in common use among the aborigines as 

 food, the presence of so many tomahawks and flints, bones and 

 ashes, together with the superficial nature of the shell-deposit, 

 distinctly prove these shell-heaps to be kitchen-middens. 



" The Weapons and Implements, — Grouping the tomahawks 

 according to Mr. Etheridge's'^ divisions, they include representa- 

 tives of the following types — oblong-ovate, oval, and gad-shaped. 

 Those of the oblong-ovate form are the heaviest and are of very 

 rude manufacture ; they appear to have been used without a haft. 

 The gad-shaped specimen shows the best finish. Most of them 

 show signs of long exposure to the weather. One is remarkably 

 small and weighs only eight ounces. Some of them have been 

 made from green diorite pebbles, one from a dark schistose frag- 

 ment, and the petrological character of others I have not been 

 able to determine. 



* Notes on AustraHan Stone Weapons and Implements, P.L.S.N.S.W. 

 Vol. vi. (2) Pt. 3, 1891. 



