24 



of the Macquarie Eiver, and Mr. Rollings, of Forcett, the following 

 from Mr. James Scott, M.H.A., of Launceston, was read : — 



* ' Hobart Town, 



"26th June, 1873. 



"Sir, — In answer to your queries as to the stone implements used 

 by the aborigines of this colony, viz., ' Were tomahawks made by 

 striking off flakes until the desired shape was obtained, ' &c. , as in queries 

 1 to 5. 



" By information from my late brother, Mr. Thomas Scott, assistant 

 Surveyor-General, who was in this colony from 1820, and had many 

 opportunities of deserving the habits, &c. , of the aborigines, I may state 

 that I never learnt that they used the flint implements as tomahawks ; 

 but invariably held them in their hands with the thumb resting on the 

 flat surface, and turning the stone as found convenient to get the cutting 

 edges where required. He had seen the men sitting for an hour or so 

 at one time, chipping one flint with another so as to give them the 

 peculiar cutting sharp edges. The flints were used principally for cutting 

 and sharpening spears, waddies, and for making notches or rough edges 

 on the end of the waddies, for the hand to grasp firmly, in order to 

 prevent slipping when in the act of throwing, &c. They were also used 

 for cutting notches in the bark of trees, to enable the natives to climb 

 by placing the great toe of each foot alternately in the notches. The 

 ends of the spears were hardened by being a short time in the fire. In 

 addition to cutting holes in the bdrk for their toes the natives, when the 

 trees were large and high, made use of a grass roj^e, which was passed 

 round their body and the tree. To make such a rope some eight or ten 

 men would all begin in a most expert way to pull the long wiry grass ; 

 and when they had sufficient would all run together, and mix it ; then 

 half of them would get small crooked sticks and twist the grass, whilst 

 the others let it out into small fine ropes. Then all these ropes were 

 twisted together into one strong one, sufficiently long to go round the 

 tree and the man ascending. 



" As to the flint implements, I have often found them in various parts 

 of the colony, but chiefly in the midland districts, and as far north as 

 Launceston, always in the shape used by holding in the hand, never 

 in the shape of a tomahawk. 



' ' A few years since I found above one hundred flints, all of the 

 usual shape, at what I believe must have been a regular camping place 

 of the Aborigines, as they were obtained on a space of about one acre 

 on the east bank of the Macquarie Eiver, at the foot of Mount Pringle, 

 on the estate of Mount INlorriston, at the head of a broad sheet of 

 water about one mile in length, on the edge of the Salt Pan Plams 

 and the hills rising to the east. 



"Should the Royal Society of Tasmania undertake to keep the flints I 

 found on the bank of the JMacquarie River, and to designate them as 

 * The Mount Morriston ' collection, I shall willingly hand them over 

 by the first opportunity after I get to Launceston. 



" The flints were said to be obtained by the aborigines somewhere 

 between 'The Split Rock ' and 'The Great Lake.' This I believe 

 could be easily tested. I am informed a rock very similar is also found 

 at * Stocker's Bottom,' forming part of ' Mount Morriston,' about five 

 miles easterly from the spot where I found them. Another is also found 

 at a spot about eight miles south, on the Macquarie River, known 

 as ' The Tea Gardens,' but I cannot from personal knowledge affirm this. 



" One custom of the aborigines was to plait strings from the bark 

 of a yellow coloured shrub, equal to flax, both in strength and fineness, 

 and found in abundance. 



" Another custom was for females who had lost a child to wear an 



