84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Jan. 30 
ers, but what shall we say to these more recent and most eminent 
authorities, if it shall turn out that our ideal boomerang not 
only has both sides flat, and no round side at all, but that each 
flat side is wholly within one plane, and each parallel to the 
other? We thus exclude all possibility of a screw-shape 
warp or twist. 
The fact is, the boomerang takes its paradoxical path, not 
because but in spite of a screw-shape twist, the existance of 
which may be easily accounted for, Every farmer’s boy knows 
that a round limb will split in half; 7. e., through the heart 
easier than any other way ; and that the split will follow the 
grain. Now the great difficulty would be not to get a stick that 
would split twisting, but one that would not. Indeed, nature 
is so gracefully easy in her ways that it would be next to im- 
possible to find the limb of a tree so precise in growth that its 
split side would be allin one plane. Every skilled mechanic 
knows that it takes tools and machines of the utmost precision, 
results of the highest skill in the art, to bring any material sur- 
face into a perfect plane. How then could the Australian 
savage, from almost the lowest race of mankind, avoid a warp 
in his split boomerang ? 
You have a warped board. Wet it upon the concave side and 
apply heat to the convex side and you straighten it. Could it 
be that the wetting and heating which Prof. Lumholtz observes 
was not to warp, but to lessen or correct a natural defect in the 
split boomerang? 
Prof. Joseph Lovering, of Harvard University, read a paper 
before the American Academy of Arts and Science in 1859, He 
makes some very acute observations concerning the inclination 
of the throw and its consequences. His calculations were based 
upon an element of ‘‘ back pressure,’’ resulting from the 
‘“‘ throw,’’ to solve the problem. 
One final instance of the black man’s remarkable ingenuity 
finding an answer to the black man’s puzzle, occurs in a recent 
number of Scribner’s Magazine, and is as follows : 
‘“‘The secret of its peculiar flight is to be found, not so much in 
its general form, as in its surface. This, on examination, is 
found to be slightly waving and broken up by various angles. 
These angles balance and counter-balance each other ; some by 
causing differences in the pressure of air on certain parts give 
steadiness of flight and firmness; others give buoyancy, and 
each has generally to be determined practically by experimental 
throwing—when these dents or angles are properly arranged, 
the boomerang goes through the air somewhat as a screw pro- 
peller goes through the water,”’ etc. 
