370 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, 



somewhat by chipping, and then quite two-thirds of the surface 

 smoothed by polishing, many of the transverse strise being still 

 visible in places. The measurements of this fine implement are: — 

 Length, 7 -Jin. ; breadth, 6in. ; thickness, 2Jin. ; weight, 51b. loz. 



The existence of these large implements along the Bulloo River 

 is mentioned by Curr, who, speaking of the Wonkomarra Tribe, 

 inhabiting the river within a radius of twenty miles of Thargo- 

 mindah, says*: "Their tomahawks, before they obtained iron ones 

 from the Whites, were of green stone, as large as an American 

 axe, the sides rather roughly chipped, and the edges ground and 

 smoothed." 



As another example of this type may be taken the axe brought 

 from Kimberley by Mr. W. W. Froggatt, and described in a late 

 paper by myself, f As compared with the present one it is smaller 

 and lighter. 



A second axe, sent to me by Mr. De Vis, is slightly larger, and 

 is more securely mounted (PI. xxxiii.). It is one of the finest 

 examples I have seen, and is from Thornborough, N. Queensland. 

 Like so many others, it is simply a large pebble, oval and flat, and 

 more or less in the rough, the only manipulation it has undergone 

 being the grinding of the cutting edge, which has produced a much 

 less perfect curve than the axe just described from Mogul Creek. 

 The pebble is a dolerite. The measurements are as follows: — Length, 

 8f in. ; breadth, 5in. ; thickness, If in. ; weight, 41b. The handle 

 is a heavy split cane, bent, and passed round the stone, and held 

 in place, like another axe from the Herbert Gorge, by whipping 

 the handle, immediately below the head, with cane riband, but 

 no gum is used. The whip is made doubly secure by passing the 

 free ends over and under, thus as it were forming a collar. The 

 length of the handle doubled is about two feet ten inches. The 

 general aspect of this axe strongly recalls to mind the similar 

 weapons from Lake Tyers in Gippsland figured by Smyth, J more 

 particularly as regards the method of tying, the absence of gum 

 mounting, and the shape of the stone heads. 



* The Australian Race, 1886, ii., p. 37. 



f Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1890, v. (2), p. 370, t. 14. 



t Aborigines of Victoria. 1878, I., p. 366, f. 177, 178. 



