304 



CYLINDRO-CONICAL AND CORNUTE STOI^ES FROM THE 



Darling River and Cooper Creek. 



By Robert Pulleine, M.B., Ch.M. 



[R^ad September 14, 1922.] 

 Plate XIV. 



Literature. 



Apart from a few records of exhibition of single speci- 

 mens of these stones at scientific meetings, the first extended 

 account is by : — 



1. Walter R. Harper, ''A Description of Certain 

 Objects of Unknown Significance formerly used by some New 

 South Wales Tribes" (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. 23, 

 1898, pp. 420-436, pis. xii.-xviii.). 



2. R. H. Mathews, L.S., contributed a paper to Sec- 

 tion F at the Brisbane meeting of the Australian Association 

 for Advancement of Science, 1909, entitled: ''Some Rock 

 Pictures and Ceremonial Stones of the Australian Aborigines" 

 (Proc, pp. 493-498). 



3. Robert Etheridge, jun., in the Memoirs of the 

 Geological Survey of New South Wales, Ethnological Series, ■ 

 No. 2, on "The Cylindro-Conical and Comute Stone Imple- 

 ments of Western New South Wales and their Significance" 

 (pp. 1-41, pi. ix.), gives a full account of all known to that 

 date on the subject, with an analysis, illustrations of many 

 specimens, and a map of distribution. 



4. Eylmann, ''Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Siid- 

 australien," taf. xxxi., f. 1910, figures a single specimen from 

 Cooper Creek with short reference. 



The early explorers of New South Wales do not mention 

 these stones, and it is especially singular that neither Howitt 

 nor Gason, who wrote exhaustively on the natives of the areas 

 in which these objects occur, refer to them in any form. 

 Hewitt's great work is so exhaustive that if anything had been 

 known about the use of theee stones it would certainly have 

 not escaped his notice. 



Mr. Simpson Newland, who lived on the Paroo River 

 from 1861 to 1876, tells me that the stones were present on 

 his station, but that the natives, then very numerous, took 

 no notice of them, neither using them nor avoiding them in 

 any way, and had no name for them. 



