126 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



If we are to carry man back to the antiquity of any deposit, in 

 which one of his implements has been found, we might claivn 

 that he dates, in Victoria, from Miocene times. During one of 

 the excursions of the Geology School of the University, Mr. D. J. 

 Mahony found a bone implement in the Middle Kainozoic marls 

 at Waurn Ponds. I was present when the specimen was found, 

 and it was unquestionably obtained in situ from the marl, and 

 was unquestionably an aboriginal implement. Subsequently, 

 however, I found that the specimen was of the type known as a 

 bone pointer. Such iinplements were used to injure an enemy 

 by witchcraft. A sharply pointed piece of human bone was 

 pointed at an enemy, while various incantations were repeated ; 

 the bone was then buried in the ground, whence, according to 

 the aboriginal belief, it would make its way into the body of the 

 person at whom it had been pointed. When I found out the 

 nature ot this implement its occurrence in the marls was easily 

 e.xplained. The tribe which lived at "VVaurn Ponds must have 

 practised this rite ; and the bone was pushed into the ground at 

 a point where the marls were exposed on the surface ; and thus 

 it was found in a very old deposit which showed no obvious sign 

 of disturbance. 



III. — The Distribution of Aborigixal Remains in 

 Superficial Deposits. 



The Buninyong specimen is unique, as it is the only one that is 

 connected with our volcanic rocks, although aboriginal implements 

 have been found in Victorian gravels of some antiquity. But, their 

 evidence is equally unsatisfactory. Our gravels have been turned 

 over so often, that specimens lying on the surface may easily have 

 been buried in old gravels and then re-discovered. There are, how- 

 ever, no cases of undoubted implements found in ancient gravels, 

 which require explanation by this hypothesis. The Ballarat imple- 

 ment, quoted by Dicker's Mining Record,^ is the best I have come 

 across, which even suggests the occurrence of man in the eai-ly Pleis- 

 tocene gravels. This specimen was a stone basalt axe, 5 lbs. in 

 weight, 8 inches long, and 4 inches in greatest thickness ; it is 



1 Ancient Mining- Tools : Singular Discoverj' of a Stone Implement or Weapon at 

 Ballarat. Dicker's Min. Rec, vol. iii., 1864, pp. 120-121. 



