186 REPORT— 1872. 



Pacific. It was obtained in the Society Islands, but bad come originally from 

 Ne\7 Zealand, and, althougli of recent manufacture, now extremely difficult to obtain. 

 Tlie present example was composed of dark-green basalt smoothly polished, 

 12 inches long, and weighed I5 lb., thus forming a powerful weapon for striking 

 the top of the head. Indeed the alleged use to which it was put by the inhabi- 

 tants was to dispatch old people when they became infirm (their parents for 

 example), by a blow in the middle of the top of the skull inflicted from behind 

 when it was least expected. This blow was sufficient to split the skull, and death 

 was instantaneous. The hard and compact nature of the stone rendered it a safe 

 weapon to accomplish its end. This terrible custom, which the author's friend 

 learned had been at one time prevalent, has long ceased to be practised ; no 

 account of it appears in Capt. Cook's voyages, although he brought several of the 

 weapons in stone and bone to England now preserved in tlie British Museum. 

 In the Museum there were eleven pata-patoos (three of them bone), and in the 

 Christie collection also eleven (two of them bone), the largest being 18 inches 

 long and the heaviest 3 lbs. in weight. 



Stone Implements and Fragments of Pottery from Canada, 

 By Sir Duncan Gibb, Bart. 



The author referred to the discovery of stone implements and pottery throughout 

 Canada, of various degrees of antiquity, the most recent being stone gouges, 

 chisels, hammers, and domestic utensils. Arrow-heads and spears were more ancient, 

 as they were not met with in recent sepultures, but generally were found on the 

 surface of ploughed land. The implements which he had collected himself in 

 Canada consisted of sixteen arrow-heads, two ilat spears, and two axes. The 

 spears were composed of chert, and were from the Saguenaye district, the largest 

 being 4^ inches long by 2 -Rdde ; they were well formed, flat, and thin. The axes 

 were of polished green micaceous schist, wedge-shaped, from 85 to 4 inches long 

 and f of an inch thick ; weight 7j and 4 oimces : found at Niagara. The arrows 

 A-aried in their size, form, and composition, ranging in length from | of an inch to 

 3^ inches, being either long and narrow tapering to a point, or broad and rounded 

 in shape ; one resembled a small celt in form. They weighed from 16 to 340 

 gi-ains, or close upon f of an ounce, and ranged from ^ to nearly i an inch in thick- 

 ness ; the shaft varied iu shape and length. The localities whence the sixteen 

 arrows were obtained were Montreal, tbe Saguenaye, Pointe du Ciienes on the 

 Ottawa river, Chippewa, Niagara, William Henry, and Quebec ; the greater num- 

 ber were composed of chert ; one was of red slate, another of white quartz : on the 

 whole they differed in form from the arrows found in the British Islands. As 

 .arrows were frequently found at Chippewa, it was evidently the site of some 

 ancient battle-field, as no flakes nor chips were found associated with them. He 

 also described three fragments of pottery, from the shores of Lake Erie and 

 Montreal, all imperfectly baked. Looking upon the stone arrows and spears as the 

 most ancient stone implements found in Canada, if not in America, the author was 

 disposed to place the period of their use and manufacture at about 200 years before 

 the Christian era, corresponding to the time that our forefathers in the British 

 Isles might have used such things as weapons or objects of the chase. Neverthe- 

 less, if the time was considered at which the aboriginal inhabitants of America 

 were traversing that continent and required some weapon as a means to kill game 

 to subsist upon, 4000 years could not be looked upon as too remote ; and as the 

 arrow is the most primitive and the simplest implement we have any knowledge 

 of, the author said it may be reasonabty considered to have been employed by the 

 inhabitants of Canada at that time, as well as probably over other parts of the 

 North-American Continent, 



On the Garo Hill Tribes of Bengal. By Major H. H. Godavin- Austen, F.R. O.S., 

 F.Z.S., ^-CyDeiyuty Supenntendent to the Topographical Survey of India. 



The Garos occupy the extreme western end of the range of hills south of the 

 Brahmaputra and Assam, and are allied to the Mech and Kachari. They do not erect 



