232 Macieay Memoriat VoLume. 
was very precise, the spear being sent midway between Mr. Hedley and myself, as 
requested it might be. Even the force of propulsion was equally marked, the head 
of the spear penetrating quite four inches into the crown of a metalled road, and 
requiring the strength of both hands to withdraw it. Touching the appellation of 
these spears—‘‘ Goose-spears” : they seem to be well named, for Leichhardt in the 
account of his journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington refers to the immense 
numbers of geese seen on the upper East Alligator or Goose River.* 
The next type is strictly a fighting spear, Voko-oale, (Pl. xxx. fig. 1), spoken of 
commonly by Mr. Stockdale as “ Lace-spears.” The shafts are saplings, ruddled, 
about six feet six inches long, cupped at the proximal end for the reception of the 
womerah-tooth, but not covered with gum-cement or whipped with twine. The 
hardwood heads are one foot six inches long, rounded on the back, or non-serrate 
face, the sides flattened, and bevelled off to a sharp edge on the front; the 
flattened surfaces perforated by a series of oblique ovate holes, the five proximal ones 
direeted upwards, the remainder downwardly so. The heads are attached to the 
shafts with gum-cement, first ruddled, and the mesh-work picked out with white and 
yellow, and the rounded backs ornamented with white checker-work in a diamond 
pattern. Immediately above the gum-cement, and at two other points, are trans- 
verse bands of red and yellow. 
A modification of this spear exists in so far that the ovate mesh-work of the 
head is bilaterally symmetrical (PI. xxx. fig. 2). The middle line of the head is 
slightly convex or ridge-shaped, white checkered, each median ridge having a white 
line down it. The number of ovate meshes is also increased to twenty-three, but, as 
in the ease of previous spears, the five proximal holes are directed upwards, and the 
remainder downwards. I have not succeeded in finding any reference to similar 
spears in the various works consulted. 
We now come to a large series of barbed spears, in which the barbs are cut out 
of one side of the head only and wide apart. The shafts are of reed, ruddled, and in 
some instances with the proximal ends and nodes of the reeds picked out with pipe- 
clay. The gum-cement, with which the hardwood heads are affixed, is frequently 
diagonally streaked with the same material. The sharp barbs are as much as 
three inches long, with deflected points, and vary from two and a-half to four 
inches apart. 
A second type of single barbed spear has the general characters of the last, but 
the barbs are stronger and shorter, only one inch long, and much closer together, 
being only one and a-half inches apart. 
* Journ. R. Geogr. Soe., 1846, XVI. p. 235. 
