1)0 FUltTHKll .No'J'K.S u.N IIAlilTS (iK TASMANIAN AUURIGINKS. 



The outline is the profile of a human turned towai'ds 

 right. Oil the right side we see, as a most conspicuous 

 feature, a little above the middle, a short, rather broad 

 prominence, rounded off at its end. Above it the edge is 

 deeply concave, but bulges out again, and comes round in 

 An elliptical curve to the left side. Below it the edge is a 

 little less concave, then turns into a fairly straight line, 

 wiiich, before reaching the proximal edge, forms another 

 concavity. The left edge is convex at its distal, concave at 

 its proximal position. The proximal edge is straight. 



The pollical face is flat and smooth ; no distinct bulb 

 of percussion ■ can be seen. The indical face is strongly 

 convex, and is a good deal worked. The flaking is, how- 

 ever, limited to the right and the left side, while towards 

 the distal end the original crust is still preserved. 



The right side conclusively shows that the promin- 

 ence has been deliberately made by striking off flakes 

 above and below it. The result is a ridge in its middle, 

 Avhich runs from the edge towards the left. The three con- 

 cavities wei"e eventually produced by three blows of differ- 

 ent strength, the top one being the strongest, the lower 

 one t\\2 weakest- It can further be seen that these blows 

 were effected after the production of the prominence. The 

 left side has been well chipped, particularly towaj*ds the 

 proximal end. The chipping of the indical face has not 

 1 educed the thickness of the stone, and it is' clear that the 

 reduction of thickness was not desired ; otherwise the 

 thin ridge formed by the flaking of the left and right side 

 could have easily been struck off by a simple blow. 



I will attempt to discuss the probable uses of this 

 peculiarly-shaped specimen. The most natural suggestion 

 is that it served as a borer, the prominence being, appar- 

 ently, well suitable for such a purpose. If we examine it, 

 however, more closely we perceive that it is most unsuit- 

 able for boring, its end being too blunt and rounded off 

 to be used for making a hole. But .supposing it did serve 

 as a borer, what good was it to the left edge, which was 

 quite useless? The original crust proves conclusively that 

 the flake cannot have been much larger than it is now. and 

 that, therefore, the removal of an inconvenient part can- 

 not have been the object of trimming. Further, if the 

 prominence was a borer, why was the lowest concavity of 

 the right edge made? Surely, that little convex part above 

 it cannot have been used as a borer. Perhaps the weighti- 

 est objerlion against the borer hypothesis is the breadth 

 of thci prominence. We are sufficiently well infonncd about 



