280 



quantity. High up on the saddle of Rosetta Head is a place 

 which was very likely the source of this material, and chips are 

 scattered about over a large area. The extreme hardness and 

 fine edge of this material rendered the chips fit for their 

 intended use without any secondary working. Chips of other 

 material are less common, and some of them are pointed in 

 form and may have been used as borers or gravers. No large 

 millstones are met with apart from the granite masses which 

 may have been used as such, but one fragment with a concave 

 surface is shown which is evidently of this nature. 



Apart from the mollusca the only food remains are the 

 otoliths of the mullowan, or butter fish, which occur in con- 

 siderable numbers all over the camp, and this fish evidently 

 largely contributed to the aboriginal food supplies. 



Evening Meeting, May 12, 1921, 



R. H. PULLEINE. 



On the Methods Adopted by the Aborigines of Australia 



in the Making of Stone Implements, based on 



Actual Observation. 



In my late visit to Central Australia I came into contact 

 with some aboriginals that still used their native weapons. 

 Two of these, one quite destitute of clothing, were met with 

 near the River Finke. They were carrying about half a 

 dozen rabbits each, which they had killed by means of their 

 wooden barbed-spears and throwing sticks, or womerahs. 

 The womerahs had, as is usual, at the opposite end to the 

 prong, a carefully-chipped stone implement, in the form of 

 a gouge, which is used for shaping most of the wooden tools 

 and weapons of the natives. From these men I obtained 

 useful information as to the methods adopted by them in 

 making their stone implements, whether by flaking, chipping, 

 or otherwise. The information thus obtained throws im- 

 portant light on certain features that could not previously be 

 explained. 



It is well known that the stone commonly used by the 

 aborigines as a braying stone, or hammer, was a naturally- 

 formed, oval-shaped, waterworn stone, very fine in the grain. 

 These so-called "hammer" stones are among the most common 

 and widely distributed of- aboriginal implements, and are 

 frequently found on the sites of their old camping grounds. 

 They give evidence of having been used by the abrasion or 

 roughened appearance that occurs on some parts of the sur- 

 face. It has been a little perplexing to find that some of 

 these hammer stones show an abraded surface at one or both 



