168 RECOKDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Mission Station at Dillon's Bay, on Erromanga, has enabled her 

 to supply the deficiency in our knowledge. Edge-Partinaton 

 figures two of these heads as "stone figures,"^" one from Malo 

 Island, the other without locality. The gift is from Mallicollo. 



The last presentation that I need refer to in this Section is that 

 of a series of Palajo-Neolithic Implements from the Egyptian 

 Desert, given by Mr. H. W. Secon-Karr. The important discovery 

 of these implements, and the workshops of the old fabricators, in 

 the Wady el Sheikh, and Wady Sojoor, tributaries of the Nile, in 

 the desert east of that mighty river, is graphically described by 

 Dr. H. 0. Forbes,'** accompanied by some beautiful illustrations of 

 the tools. The collection presented to us is from a spot ninety- 

 seven miles south of Cairo, and from ten to twelve miles east of 

 the Nile. The material of which the implements are made is 

 eitlier a yellowish, pale grey, or dark brown chert, showing evident 

 signs of long weathering. The implements, many of which exhibit 

 a high degree of finish, consist of hatchet or axe and chisel-like 

 tools, cores, leaf-shaped flints, knife-like tools, many of them 

 double-pointed, and large flakes with a curved outline. 



The acquisitions for the year in this Section were as follows : — 

 by donation, four hundred and ninety-eight; by exchange, twenty- 

 three; by purchase, two hundred and sixteen; and by collection, 

 forty-four.'^ 



Historical. 



(The Curator). 



The registration of specimens in this Section was kept under 

 by Mr. North, but in consequence of his attention having to be 

 directed more to his especial duties I relieved him of further 

 responsibility. 



The objects added in 1900 were few in number, but of high 

 importance historically. In 1894 the Trustees received from the 

 Government of New South Wales, in trust, a number of objects, 

 prints, and documents, generally known as the " Cook Relics," 

 all of which were, at one time, there is every reason to believe, the 

 property of the great circumnavigator, Capt. James Cook, R.N., F.R.S., 

 and with whose name the earliest history of Australia is so inti- 

 mately associated. 



At the time these relics came to the Museum, certain of the 

 documents were found to be missing,"" having become mislaid, 

 shortly after the arrival of the collection in Sydney. After much 

 patient enquiry and searching, they were fortunately found, and 



17 Edge-Partington — Ethnol. Album, 3rd series, pi. lix., figs. 4 and 5. 



18 Forbes — Bull. Liverpool Museums, 11., 3 and 4, 1900, pp. 78-115, 

 plates and map. 



19 JJesides the flint chips collected by Mr. Whitelegge, of which there 

 were several hundreds. 



20 Aust. Mus. Rep., 1891 (1895), p. 1, par. 3. 



