190 RECORDS OF TIIK AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



1. Spears : — As to how much labour is entailed in the manufac- 

 ture of a spear depends largely upon the nature of the timber 

 employed according as to whether this is a bamboo or a thin 

 sapling, or whether the implement is cut out of a tree en bloc, as 

 happens sometimes in the Boulia and Rockhampton Districts, or 

 split out of the solid. The different methods adopted in getting 

 it into shape, e.g., bending, straightening, etc., as well as the 

 tools, etc., required for the purpose, have already been described 2 . 

 I propose including certain mention of the spears used in hunting 

 and fishing, which although not fighting weapons, find a more or 

 less natural place here. 



2. Most of the weapons used in the North-Western Districts 

 have been fully detailed 3 , and hence require little additional 

 description. Mr. E. Palmer, however, records three additional 

 timbers used for spears in these areas :—PJt.r(igmites communis, 

 Trim, stems used for reed-spears on the Mitchell River; Sesbauia 

 a ijj/ptiaca, Fersoon, stems for the ends of reed-spears at Cloncurry; 

 Thryplomene oligandra, F.v.M., for the points of reed-spears 

 only, on the Mitchell and Gilbert Rivers. Spears that have 

 since been met with are the stone-spears' of Burketown, Point 

 Parker, and the ranges along the Queensland Northern Territory 

 Border, and the multiple-prong lish-spears of the Wellesley 

 Islands. The lancet flake of the former is fixed into the split 

 extremity of the shaft after the manner of a wedge 5 , and then 

 bound round with twine, and finally strengthened with cement. 

 The prongs of the fish-spears, spliced and fixed only with twine 

 on to the proximal portion, have their barbs one behind the other, 

 cut out en bloc (Fig. 12). 



TThe spear selected for description has the shaft scarfed, and 

 is tri-pronged. Both portions of the former consist of stick- 

 saplings fined down. The following are the measurements : — 



ft. in. 

 Length over all ... ... ... 11 2 



of butt 4 



shaft proper ... ... 5 2 



prongs ... ... 2 



The butt is cupped for the reception of a wommera peg at the 

 proximal end, and bound with coarse native twine ; at the distal 

 end it is scarfed to fit against a corresponding proximal scarf on 



2 Roth— Bull. 7— Sects. 2, 3, 4. 



:'Roth— P^thnol. Studies, etc., 1897— Sects. 246-251. 

 * Roth— Bull. 7— Plate vi. and Sect. 24. 

 Fi e- 12 - ■' Roth— Bull. 7 -Sect. 31. 





