372 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, 



by the natives, were employed in splitting trees." One of these, 

 found at Daylesford, was nearly fourteen inches in length and five 

 inches in breadth. 



Such large and heavy implements are not tomahawks in the 

 strict sense of the word, applying the latter term to forms similar 

 to those described under Section A. Indeed the appearance of 

 the fine tool from Thornborough, with its strong and firmly fixed 

 handle, stamps it at once as an implement more in accordance 

 with our idea of an axe, and could not have been put to such a 

 use as the implement from the Herbert Gorge, to be described 

 shortly. 



in. — Hand-Axes and Wedges. 



By this term I wish to designate those axes which bear evidence 

 of having been simply held in the hand, and so used, or used as a 

 wedge, rather than mounted in a withy. The Rev. P. MacPherson 

 has drawn attention to this form of axe in the following words : * 

 "Three of the third class of large hatchets are distinguished by 

 another peculiarity : they have a piece knocked out of one corner 

 so as to fit to the broad part of the thumb where it spreads out into 

 the hand. They could thus be used without a handle, or when it 

 came off." Speaking of the Cooper's Creek tribes, Mr. A. W. 

 Howitt says : " They grasp the tomahawk with the fingers and 

 thumb, holding the blunt end in the hollow of the hand."f 



A tool unmistakably meant to be held in the hand, although no 

 finger-holds are seen, has been forwarded by Mr. C. W. De Vis, 

 found at Toowong, near Brisbane. It seems to have been a rough 

 weather-worn piece of rock, with traces of flakes struck off round 

 the edges, but, generally speaking, advantage appears to have been 

 taken of its flattened, large, oval form. A naturally weathered 

 bevelled margin exists on one face, but the other is ground and 

 polished. The peculiarity of this tomahawk, however, lies in the 

 cutting away of the sides at the butt, until a handle has been 

 formed capable of being grasped by the hand. This is, I think, 



• Journ. R. Soc. N. S. Wales for 1885 [1886], xix., p. 115. 

 + Smyth's Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I., p. 388 (note). 



