92 NOTES O.N THK HUNTINO STICKS, KTC. 



used lor an enormous period, that can only be counted by 

 millions of years, nothing else but the hunting stick, which 

 was thrown with a rotatory motion, and which, as I said, 

 cannot be considered as a weapon, strictly speaking. When 

 the first ice sheets covered Northern Europe, perhaps the 

 first invention of a real weapon, the wooden spear, which 

 was thrown in a straight line, probably spinning round its 

 own axis, was made. Wooden spear and hunting stick were 

 again the only weapons of the human race for an enormous 

 period, though, if measured in absolute time, the earlier part 

 of the Archajolithic stage, which was characterised by the 

 use of the hunting stick only, was incommensurably longer 

 than the latter iDart^ in which hunting stick and wooden 

 spear were simultaneously used. 



The period when the wooden perenna was superseded 

 by the stone-headed spear can be verv accurately fixed ; 

 this must have taken place about the time when the Palaeo- 

 lithic implement took the place of the Archaeolithc, name- 

 ly, during the Middle Interglacial Period in the Strepyian 

 industry. It is ven' probable that at first spear heads of an 

 Archaeolithic type were used, and specimens of this type are 

 still used on the Admiralty Islands and in Queensland. It 

 is, however, very probable that owing to its unequal bal- 

 ance the Archseolithic spear head was not long in favour, 

 and was soon siiperseded by the Palseolithic head. 



. Probably at the same time as when the wooden spear 

 was provided with a stone head, the shaft was made 

 stronger, and it was no longer gripped like the perenna, 

 but with the whole fist. Tbe spinning motion of the 

 perenna naturally became impossible, and the spear was 

 thrown in a straight line, without rotating round its longi- 

 tudinal axis. It would go beyond the scope of this paper 

 if I were to follow up the evolution of weapons ; it only 

 seems to me that the period during which a certain type 

 of weapons was in use quickly became shorter till it is now 

 only as many months in use as it was formerly centuries, 

 and at a still earlier period thousands, even hundreds of 

 thousands of years. In connection with this we notice a 

 peculiar feature; primitive man fought his battles at a long 

 range (35), which, of course, was measured by yards only ; 



(35) The Tasmanlan aboriglnps did not likf a hand to hand fight: 

 In preffTPnce thev sent a shower of spears from ini ambush at the 

 unsuppcctlnR enemy, hot they did not come to close quarters except 

 to dispatch the wounded when the enemy look to flight. For this 

 reason I do not helle\e that i>rlmltlve man used as Its first weapon 

 a club, that Is to say. a weapon ending In a heavy knob. A club Is 

 e'^'-entlHllv h weation to be used in' a close combat, but primitive mnn, 

 like the Tasmanlans, did not flgbt at clot-e quarters, so the club was 

 of no use to hlni. 



