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carbonized wood, that was inclined towards the basin. This 

 was probably the remains of a spear handle or pointed stick of 

 hardwood that had been thrust into the sand alongside what, 

 I believe, to have been a dipping-place for water by the 

 aborigines. 



Close to these dipping-places, and but slightly embedded 

 in the surface of the white sand, were five cores of quartzite, 

 that gave evidence of having been flaked by human hands. 

 Four of these lay in pairs, quite close together, just as if the 

 owners had laid them down after using them, probably for 

 grinding their food. 



The excavation was carried down another 10 feet, through 

 the white sand, but as this bed was of the nature of a 

 quicksand, great difficulties were met with in its removal, for 

 when left for a few hours the sand would cave in and reach its 

 former level, so that after a depth of 10 feet was reached in 

 this bed the work was stopped without reaching its bottom. 



It may be said that the benevolent intentions of the owner 

 of the ground were to some extent realized. The surroundings 

 were planted with a variety of native shrubs and trees which 

 afforded both shelter and food for the birds, and these soon 

 took advantage of this sanctuary, where they nested and be- 

 came exceedingly tame, as did also the land and water snakes, 

 which made friends with their human protector, whom they 

 came to recognize. In the course of time the proximity of 

 population and frequent raids of trespassers nullified the main 

 objects for which the lake had been established. 



The clay basins, which I suppose to be dipping-places of 

 the aboriginals, were all on the same level, two were fairly 

 close together, while the third was further apart. I closely 

 examined the hard clay to discover, if possible, finger-prints, 

 but without success. Anyone seeing these basins could form 

 no other idea but that they were made by man. 



I have never seen anything resembling this, kind of con- 

 struction by the aboriginals of Australia, but strange to say, 

 at a place called Kisimayu on the East Coast of Africa near 

 the Somali Land border and right on the coast, I found 

 some years ago natives making mud-lined basins in the sand 

 to hold water. These were very like the ones described in this 

 paper, only for shape, the African basin being much longer 

 than they were wide, while two of the Australian ones were 

 almost circular in shape, the third being a little depressed on 

 the sides. The clay which composed these basins was dark in 

 colour and very hard, the sand had drifted into all three, and 

 it was only when a workman cut through one that their pres- 

 ence was made known. On discovering a second one the sand 

 was cleared away, but the basin evidently had cracks in it, 



