15Y FRl'lZ NOETLING, M.A., PH.D. 51 



When material was required boulders from thei gravel 

 beds were collected, and it is more than probable that 

 among a number of them there were a certain number, 

 which, though seemingly hard and suitable, were really 

 unsuitable. These boulders were tested by striking off one 

 or two flakes, and if they were found lacking that essential 

 quality for the production of a tero-watl^, viz., a good con- 

 choidal fracture, they wore rejected. It is by no means 

 surprising that almost all of these rejects are pebbles of 

 saccharine quartzite, which does not fracture like the homo- 

 geneous hornstone- 



The astonishing part, however, is that the aborigines 

 ever did collect such quartzite pebbles. One ought to as- 

 sume that long experience taught them to distinguish a 

 quartzitci boulder from a hornstone boulder. But what is 

 more, one detached flake ought to have been sufficient to 

 prove the suitability of the material or not. Yet frcquent-- 

 ly two, three, or as in the instance of the Shene pebble, 

 some six tests were made before it was finally rejected. This 

 is again one of those psychological problems that we so fre- 

 quently meet in our studies of the civilisation of the Tas- 

 manian aborigines. 



A modern mind would soon learn to distinguish quartz- 

 ite from other pebbles siiitable for the manufacture of a 

 tero-watta. But even if in special cases somewhat doubt- 

 ful, a single test would be sufficient to prove whether the 

 material is suitable or not- 

 Having proved that these specimens must be considered 

 as tested rejects, we will now examine the percussion marks 

 somewhat more closcl}^, because none of the nuclei of finish- 

 ed tero-watta presents similar marks, except in cases of an 

 ineffective blow. Even in that case there is a slight differ- 

 once between the marks of an ineffective blow produced on 

 hornstone and those of the effective blows on the pseudo- 

 nuclei. 



Exactly the same percussion mark can be produced if 

 a well-tempered nail is placed on the surface of a quartzite 

 pebble and a shar}> blow is administei"ed on its head. Of 

 course it is absurd to assume that the aborigines used a 

 nail or other sharply-pointed iron chisel to split the pebbles, 

 but it may be probable that they placed the sharp point of 

 ? piece of rock on the pebble, and administered a sharp 

 blow to this chisel. 



