AUSTRALIA AND SOME OTHER COUNTRIES. : 117 
difference of shape presented by the whole of the hatchets from 
Erromanga, as compared with the Australian, is very marked. 
Sharpening and rounding the implements arta a point at one end is 
in decided contrast to the general character of the mor 
hatchets. One advantage vaideudig os a re the 
shape is in regard to the very practical matter of the handle. 
When once fastened on in a satisfactory manner, the more the 
implement was used the more tightly the handle became fastened 
to the broadening sides of the hatchet. 
n inspection of the Australian, the New Hebridean, and the 
Danish —— proves that there are very marked —— 
between them all. 1e style of workmanship and the shape o 
: 
hatchets and other such articles in Denmark must hav 
through aaa in which they saw axes and various nabeceimatl 
formed of metal. 
ANTIQUITY OF THE STONE IMPLEMENTS. 
There is a point of enduring interest connected with aboriginal 
implements of stone to which attention may be turned for a few 
moments. It is the a far do these instruments, in 
themselves or by re of association, supply evidence as to the 
them 
circumstances as to lead to the — that the aborigines and 
these animals had in former ages been living during the same 
time. But, so far as the writer Sede none of the implements now 
exhibited were found in such a connection as to afford any means 
of reaching conclusions on the subject. Also, the chemical at 
which produces dendrites has been urged in connection 
European relics as affording evidence of the great age of the 
implements or objects on which the dendritic process had taken 
lace. Nothing of this kind has been observed in any of the 
implements exhibited. 
. Another direction in which evidence of antiquity _ be 
e soil 
ations, isin this case of very little significance as proving great 
antiquity. After a flood some of the flats have been covered for 
acres with new deposit reaching the uppermost rail of a three-rai! _ 
fence, or about 4 feet. A farmer near East Maitland, in the 
