
286 RECORDS OF THE S.A. MUSEUM 
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER TYPES IN GENERAL. 
It will be noted that the most carefully worked specimens are almond shaped, 
resembling the ‘‘Acheulean’’ type of South-Western Europe. This feature 
is uncommon among ground axes and probably results from blanks having that 
shape. 
Kenyon (1912) says ‘‘Along the Portland beaches flint nodules occur in 
great number while there is no other useful local rock except basalt. Chipped 
flint implements are lying in every direction. Every Tasmanian implement 
found may be duplicated there, while all the palaeolithic implements of Europe 
and America can be duplieated.’’ He continues, quoting from Seton-Karr, ‘‘It 
is indeed probable that peculiar types discovered in different parts of the world 
have been evolved through the local material.’ Professor Spencer, in referring 
to the occurrence side by side of both neolithic and palaeolithic types, says ‘‘The 
matter is largely concerned with the kind of stone which is procurable.’’ 
Mitchell (1943) writes ‘‘Only two of the larger implements of flint flaked 
on two sides were found, and one badly-weathered ground edged axe of 
basalt. The former type is very common on some of the coastal dunes in Vic- 
toria, together with a ‘eoup de poing’ type and it is possible that many of 
those deseribed as choppers should be classed as blanks or cores, the purpose 
of the flaking being to ascertain whether the internal flint was suitable, and 
reserved for future use.’’ The present writer arrived at a similar conelu- 
sion on account of the large number of poorly executed examples lying about 
the factory site and the better specimens being found in camp-sites. elsewhere. 
The impression gained was that the poorer types were mainly rejects. The 
specimens listed as from Cape Northumberland were found on typical cliff- 
top camp-sites. From this place, three miles W.N.W. to Douglas Point, Hun- 
dred of Kongorong, and twelve miles east from Cape Northumberland to Green 
Point, Hundred of Caroline, mark the limits within which the author collected 
these artefacts. All were found on camp-sites in the immediate vicinity of the 
sea. Ground axeheads, probably from the factories of Mount William and other 
sites in Victoria, have been found plentifully throughout this district; also some 
grooved wedges in the author’s collection in the South Australian Museum. In 
one camp-site, a considerable area of blown sand, adjacent to Green Point, the 
writer found twelve ground axes. 
Mr. P.S. Hossfeld, M.Se., has kindly furnished the following geological notes 
on the occurrence of the flint in the region under discussion. 
‘Flint which in the South-East of South Australia is the predominant mate- 
rial used by the natives for their stone implements, is derived primarily from 
certain horizons in the limestones of Tertiary Age which outcrop at a number 
of places both inland and on the coast. 
““Accumulations of flint pebbles, many of them rounded, occur at Port Mac- 
Donnell and other places, their toughness and resistance to wave action and 
weathering being so much greater than the rocks in which they occur, that they 
alone remain, the containing rocks having been disintegrated and removed com- 
pletely. 
“Within the limestone the flints oceur as irregular nodules of variable sizes, 
some of them rounded, others of very variable shapes, including tabular pieces. 
‘“The occurrence inland of raised beaches formed at successive stages of the 
geological history of the South-East district, suggests the existence, at favourable 
localities where wave action could sort the flints from the containing limestone, 
of deposits of flints similar to those found on some of the present beaches. A 
number of such flint deposits have been found on sites which have proved to be 
raised beaches. 
