83 



Australia. One of the quartzite specimens, the smallest of the 

 four, shows conchoidal fracture in the flat face and has been 

 carefully chipped into an almost circular outline at the base. 



2. Hammer-stone. — This is a very siliceous quartzite, 

 3^ inches in diameter, circular in outline, thick, and flattened 

 on two sides. Weathering has removed what was probably 

 small granules of kaolin that were interspersed with the quartz 

 grains, leaving the stone somewhat open. It is also bleached 

 to a white colour, probably the result of deoxidation through 

 contact with vegetable matter in the beds. It gives evidence 

 of extensive use on the edge which has been worn back to a 

 flat face about an inch in width. 



3. Fabricator. — This tool is an oval-shaped, flattish 

 pebble, 2| inches in the greater diameter, the parent rock 

 being the very fine-grained quartzites that make a prominent 

 feature at Sellick Hill. This class of stone, on account of its 

 fine grain and conchoidal fracture, was a favourite stone with 

 the aborigines of the Adelaide tribe for making their 

 implements. It occurs on the beach and in the paddocks along 

 the coast between Sellick Hill and Marino. The example 

 found in the Reedbeds section is perfectly typical in its 

 evidence of wear. The edge is much worn, especially a little 

 aside from the obtuse ends of the stone, arising from the 

 manner of its use in striking off flakes, and there is also 

 considerable wear on the two flat faces at right angles to the 

 former. After extensive use these fabricators assume a 

 cruciform outline. No stone flakes, knives, or other worked 

 stones were found where these implements occurred, but the 

 presence of this fabricator proves that such definitely shaped 

 stones were in use at the time to which the remains belong. 



4. Casual Stones. — Two stones of an indefinite character 

 were found at the same place. One a rough chip of weathered 

 quartzite, circular in outline and having a diameter of 2^ 

 inches. The other, a flat, water-worn, elongated stone, about 

 6 inches in length and If inches in breadth, belonging to the 

 purple-slates series of the Upper Cambrian. Stones of this 

 kind are common as beach stones on the local shores; it gives 

 no signs of having been used in any way, but it could only have 

 occurred in the position in which it was found except by 

 human agency. 



The Age of the Aboriginal Remains. 



The mean level of the site on which the excavation was 

 made, according to official figures, is at or about high-water 

 level. The situation^ is near the western margin of the flood 

 waters of the River Torrens over the area known as the Reed- 

 beds, and about half or three-quarters of a mile to the 



