75 
, May 22. 
Rey. B. LLOYD, D.D., Provost, T. C. D., President, 
in the Chair. 
Rey. James Horner, D. D., was elected member of the 
Academy. 
Professor Mac Cullagh read a letter from Joseph S. 
Moore, Esq. on the Australian instrument called kilee or 
boomerang, so remarkable for the course that it takes when 
thrown in the air. It is a flat piece of wood of a hyperbolic 
form, about 2 inches broad, perfectly plane on one side, 
and slightly convex on the other. A right line joining its 
extremities is about two feet long, and the middle of this 
right line is distant about a foot from the middle of the in- 
strument or the vertex of the hyperbola. When properly 
thrown, it makes a circuit, returns, passes close to the per- 
son who threw it, and even goes behind him, and then at- 
tempts to return again before it falls to the ground. It is 
curious that such a missile should have been invented by 
savages, for, as far as we know, it is found only among the 
natives of New Holland. It is said to be called kilee on the 
western, and boomerang on the eastern coast of that country. 
Some of these kilees had been sent to Mr. Moore from the 
Swan River, and though he was unsuccessful in throwing 
them, he succeeded with others which he caused to be made 
of the same general form, but much more curved than the 
originals. The dimensions given above are those which he 
found most convenient. The. following is an extract from 
_ Mr. Moore’s letter : 
« The natives throw them with the convex edge against 
the air; their movement is then from left to right. But the 
way in which I have succeeded was by taking the missile by 
