376 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, 



The smoothed and polished portions of these implements vary 

 greatly in extent and finish, and seem to have been studied only 

 so far as to produce an efficient cutting edge. Grinding may 

 have taken place alone, or grinding and polishing may occur 

 conjointly in the same implement. Such a thing as a wholly 

 polished tomahawk, without the assistance of a natural agent, has 

 never come under my notice. 



The cutting edge is, with remarkably few exceptions, always 

 curved, and the curvature very rarely amounts to a semicircle. 

 Mr. William Anderson, however, cites two exceptions to this rule, 

 one a pebble from the conglomerate of the Gunclabooka Mountain, 

 to the west of Bourke, in which the cutting edge is "nearly 

 straight." A straight cutting edge is also exemplified in the 

 third tomahawk of the deltoid or subtriangular type under 

 Section a. The cutting edge is at times ground very sharp; "so 

 sharp," says Rear- Admiral P. P. King, " that a few blows serve to 

 chop off the branch of a tree.** 



The butt is never worked, only chipped ; but the production of 

 tomahawks by chipping alone is very rare throughout Central and 

 Eastern Australia, although common in Western Australia. Mr. 

 Anderson mentions two examples from N. S. Wales. f Chipped 

 weapons are flaked from the edges inwards, the size of the flakings 

 decreasing in size forwards. The sides are sometimes grooved to 

 assist in firmly attaching the handle. 



Single stones appear to have been universally used over the 

 entire Continent, with the exception of Western Australia, where 

 two are employed, attached to the same handle, placed butt to 

 butt, and united in the hafting. 



Tomahawk or axe-heads perforated for the reception of a handle 

 are unknown, with the exception of an instance recorded by Dr. 

 J. C. Cox,t which appears to point in that direction. He says — 

 " But specimens I have only recently received from the Macdonald 



* Intertrop. Coasts of Australia, ii., p. 69. 



+ Records Geol. Survey, loc. cit., p. 77- 



% Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1875, I., p. 23. 



