BOOMERANGS. 



spin that plays the most important part 

 in baseball, as the batsman has to take 

 the ball in its first flight without previous 

 bouncing. Some of the throwers in this game 

 have great skill, and make an especial 

 feature of spins H and N, giving balls which 

 appear to fly straight for a great part of the 

 way and develop an unexpected swerve at the 

 last. 



These men can throw a ball so that in an 

 unbroken flight, without any bouncing, it can 

 pass round the corner of a house out of sight 

 of the thrower. 



3. Boomerangs. 



Among the various weapons and con- 

 trivances of savage races none has aroused 

 more interest than the boomerang of the 

 native Australians (see Frontispiece), and the 

 reason for the exceptional interest with which 

 it has been regarded is the paradoxical and 

 almost miraculous nature of its reported per- 

 formances. It has been said to describe circles, 

 loops, and a figure of eight in the air, to hit the 

 quarry and then return to the hunter who 

 threw it, to fly round a house and come back 

 on the other side, to come back and drop 

 behind the thrower. 



The boomerang varies a great deal in its 

 form, but the following is an account of its 

 average construction. 



47 



