S A PECULIAR GROUP OF TRONATTAS. 



Other undulating, showing a broad, short prominence, 

 ■on either side of whidh it is concave. The poiHcal face 

 is smooth and flat, and its left edge is well chipped all 

 along its length. The indical face is smooth, but a very 

 conspicuous longitudinal ridge runs somewhat closer to 

 the left edge, which is very carefully chipped ; tihe chip- 

 pings extend also over the rounded-olf ends, but un- 

 fortunately the specimen is just at that point damaged 

 where indical and pollical chipping would join. 



These specimens are sufficient to illustrate the 

 peculiar feature of this group, which in my opinion is, 

 however, not intentional. As already pointed out, bi- 

 faced marginal trimming is only observred when the in- 

 dical face is almost as smooth and fiat as the pollical 

 face. This seems to indicate that when a fiake was 

 obtained whose two faces were fiat, and could therefore 

 indiscriminately be used as the pollical face, the Abori- 

 gines made the most of it, and usea both accordingly. 



It is very interesting to note that similar specimens 

 have been found in Europe. Amongst a collection of 

 eolithes from the Mesvinien of Belgium, which has been 

 sent to me by Dr. Rutot, of Bruxelles, I found several 

 specimens which were used on both faces. These speci- 

 mens exhibit the same feature as the Tasmanian tron- 

 attas, namely, a smooth and flat indical face, which 

 -could conveniently be used as a rest for the thumb. They 

 are apparently more frequent among the European 

 eolithes than among the Tasmanian tronattas, but 

 whether this is the result of flint producing more easily 

 two flat faces when broken than the Tasmanian horn- 

 stone (trona or mora trona), I am unable to say for 

 the present. We might perhaps consider these imple- 

 ments as archaistic remnants from the times when the 

 art of working pieces of siliceous stone was still in its 

 very infancy. Anything to save trouble — and the shap- 

 ing of a tronatta v^^as by no means an easy matter (teste 

 Scott !) — was resorted to, and if a flake was obtained 

 which had two pollical faces, so to speak, it was used 

 as long as possible. 



I consider this merely a suggestion, as I am well 

 aware that further proof would be required before this 

 view could be further discussed. 



