Hardman — Native Weapons and Implements from Australia. 61 
Separately they would seem to be representatives of the Palaeoli- 
thic, l^eolithic, bone and iron ages. 
There are three sets of mineral spear-heads. The first is formed 
of agate or chalcedony, well shaped, but rudely finished. These 
would seem to belong to a very different age, or to a distinct race of 
men, in which, or by whom, the very beautiful set of heads in the 
next section were formed. But these belong to the same age and 
people, and are but the finished production, worked up at the owner's 
leisure. 
A native's kit, which consists of a piece of paper bark " from the 
capput-tree,^ always contains a few of these roughly-chipped spear- 
heads (PL I., figs. 1 and 3), and he works them up into the finely- 
pointed and delicately-serrated article at a convenient time. 
"We often surprised parties of blacks in their camps along the river 
beds, when the men were engaged in shaping the first rude conception 
of a spear-head into the orthodox and deadly weapon. 
One cannot help being struck by the very symmetrical shape and 
the delicate finish of the completed spear-heads (Plate i., figs. 4, 
5, 6). The central figure on Plate i. is especially worthy of notice 
(Plate I., fig. 2). This is formed of dark-green agate. 
IN'ext to these come the most modern, namely, those of glass. 
These exhibit alike the progress of civilization, and the deadly 
presence of the brandy -bottle. 
The rate of colonization in certain parts of "Western Australia can 
be roughly estimated by the quantity of bottles found in the sand. 
A bottle once emptied is considered to be of no further use, and is 
promptly chucked out ; no one dreams of returning empties even in 
the large towns, and in the small ones you can always track your way 
to the best hotel by the accumulating glass. 
The natives were not slow to discover that glass makes a formidable 
ofiensive weapon. In Queensland and South Australia they interfere 
seriously with telegraphic communication, by stealing the glass 
insulators as material for spear-heads. And when the white man 
appeared in Kimberley, and brought his inevitable brandy-bottle, it 
was quickly utilized, as shown in the specimens here exhibited. 
Another species of spear-head shown in the specimens (PI. ii., fig. 6) 
is of bone — at least fish-bone — being the spine of the " cat-fish," a 
fish common in all the rivers of the district, and resembling an ex- 
aggerated cobbler's thumb," with which those who are anglers have 
^ Melaleuca leucodendron. 
