Chap, xvii.] PRICE OF NATIVE PROPERTY. 379 



Hence the natives cared hardly for anything except iron • 

 bright handkerchiefs or Turkey red stuff were seldom taken in 

 exchange, and then for very httle value. Beads however were 

 prized. Of their own property, the natives valued most tlieir 

 stone hatchets. Very probably they obtain the stone of which 

 they are made by barter from a distance, since the rock at 

 Humboldt Bay is a limestone, and the hatchets are made of 

 jade or greenstone, or of a slate. The labour involved in grind- 



'- ^I^?^^ ^ .-^^§#^5 



NATIVES OF THE VILLAGE OF TOBADDI, HL'MBOLDT BAY. 

 N.B. — The arrow shown is too short, and should be as long; as the bow. 



ing down a jade hatchet-head to the smooth symmetrical sur- 

 faces which these native implements show, must be immense. 



Next in value to the stone implements were the breastplate- 

 like ornaments, each of which has, as its components, eight or 

 more pairs of Wild Boars' tusks, besides quantities of native 

 beads, of small ground-down Nerita shells. These treasures 

 required a trade hatchet at least to purchase them. All other 

 articles, necklaces, armlets, tortoiseshell ear-rings, combs, 

 paddles, daggers of Cassowary bone and such things, could be 



