type, and, besides, is made of tlie least carefully selected wood in 

 this series, as the flat surface has several wavy depressions. The 

 others are fairly flat, but some slightly twisted. One specimen 

 has been mended with resin-cement at the place marked with a x . 

 All have been covered with ochre rubbed on in a dry state. 



Shield, ? (PI. IS).— It is made of hard wood, two feet 

 three and a half inches long and six and a half inches wide, 

 slightly convex in front, and correspondingly concave at the back. 

 The ends bend backward about one and a half inches, so that a 

 straiglit line may be drawn from tlie ends over the back part of 

 tiie handle ; elegantly shaped and worked down to an average 

 thickness of a quarter of an inch, which is gradually increased 

 towards the handle, but slightly thinned towards the margin. 

 The front is deeply and regularly grooved, and painted alter- 

 nately white and red ; the back is less regularly and more finely 

 grooved, and colored completely red. The workmanship and finish 

 is superior to anything I have seen produced by the aborigines of 

 Australia, and the pigments must liave been applied wet, as they 

 adhere much more firmly to the wood than usual when applied 

 dry. This kind of sliield appears to me completely worthless for 

 the purpose for which such an implement is generally intended 

 to be used. Its extreme thinness and lightness, together with 

 the want of tenacity of the wood it is fashioned of, makes it unfit 

 to resist a waddy or a club ; a single blow from either would send 

 it into splinters. Even against a spear it cannot be a protection, 

 because a stroke from one, unless it glanced off, would be likely 

 to split it from end to end. It seems to me almost as if it were 

 intended more for an ornament than for use, and if the aborigines 

 obeyed a chief like other crude peoples, I should be inclined to 

 considei- it an emblem of authority. These thoughts occurred to 

 me on carefully examining the shield for desci-iption, when I 

 noticed that it had suffered considerably since it came into my 

 possession, although I believed it to be packed fairly well, to- 

 gether with some other things. 



Bone JSTose-stick, ? (PL 15, fig. 8). 

 Bone Needle or Awl, ■' (PI. 15, fig. 7). 

 Digging-stick, 'i 

 . Small Wood Food- or Water-bowl. ? 

 The last two implements are the constant vade mecum of the 

 women. (The names of the objects queried by me I am unable to 

 give owing to a much-regretted loss of a portion of my Murchison 

 vocabulary.) 



Besides the absence of boomerangs amongst the natives en- 

 countered during the earlier part of the journey, after leav- 

 ing Warrina, the absence of clubs, shields, and stone toma- 

 hawks, which extended beyond the Fraser Range, was very 



