166 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Bays, Dee-Why Lagoon, etc., exposing what appeared to be the 

 old land surface. On the latter Mr. Whitelegge found revealed, 

 what we had never before imagined to exist, a series of Aboriginal 

 "workshops," where for generations the Blacks of the Port 

 Jackson District must have manufactured chips, splinters, and 

 points for insertion along the distal margins of their spears 

 and other purposes. The old land surface at Bondi, as I saw it, 

 in company with the discoverer, was covered with thousands of 

 these chips, some of them exquisitely made, with core pieces, 

 chippers and rubbers. The lithological character of the material 

 used was very varied, from pure white crystalline quartz, opaque 

 amorphous quartz, every variety of chert, and quartzite to rocks 

 of a metamorphic character. It is quite clear that the siliceous 

 material was derived in a great measure from the surrounding 

 Hawkesbury Sandstone, but the others were probably obtained 

 from distant sources. I regard this as one of the most important 

 Ethnological discoveries made in New South Wales for many 

 years. 



The presentation of Cava (Ava, Kava, or Yaquona) as a gift is 

 referred to by Mariner'" in his interesting account of the cere- 

 monious preparation of this beverage by the Tongans. The same 

 practice seems to have existed in Fiji, for Seemann says,'*' "Roots 

 of Yaquona are presented to visitors as tokens of good will, and 

 to the temple as offerings." To Mr. James Green, of Tonga, we 

 are indebted for an example of the root of Piper methysticum, 

 Forst., in gift or presentation form (Plate xxiii., tig. 1). It consists 

 of the leaf-stem of a narrow-leafed palm of which the mid-ribs of the 

 pinnules are retained, and the wings stripped otl'. These mid-ribs 

 then stand out as a series of skewers, and on them the pieces of 

 Cava root, cut into convenient sizes, are strung, each piece having 

 a hole bored through it. The skewer-like mid-ribs are then pressed 

 up parallel to the leafstem, and wound round with a tape of the 

 inner bark of the Hibiscus. The entire length of this pleasing 

 object is five and three-quarter feet. 



Our admirable collection of Canoes received an addition from 

 the Solomon Islands at the hands of a valued benefactor, already 

 mentioned, Mr. P. G. Black. The Canoe is fourteen feet nine 

 inches in length, with a beam of eighteen inches at the centre, 

 and a remarkably flat bottom, except immediately fore and aft. 

 It is built of rather narrow boards, stitched together with rattan, 

 and the seams served with some kind of gum cement. The short 

 fore and aft prows are decorated each with two tufts of feathers, 

 the upper tufts apparently composed of those of the Frigate-bird, 

 and the lower of Cockatoos, white in colour. The locality is 

 Ngela (New Florida) Island. 



15 Mariner — Ace. Natives Tonga Islands, ii., 1817, p. 201. 



16 Seemann— Viti, 1862, p. 326. 



