62 
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
at times become painfully acquainted. The cat-fish has three spines — 
one dorsal and two pectoral — each about two inches long. The cat- 
fish of the Australian rivers is about sixteen inches long, and chiefly 
affects the bed of the river, as the unwary bather often discovers to 
his cost.^ 
These spears are generally used for taking fish, appropriately 
enough. The process is very simple. The native constructs a rude 
raft of logs, on which he ventures into a deep pool where fish are 
plenty. He has in one hand a piece of twine, to which is attached a 
bait, generally flesh, if procurable. The fish, attracted by this, comes 
up to nibble at it, and while its attention is engaged by the lure, the 
native promptly spears it. 
These heads were broken off from shafts about ten feet long, 
formed of tolerably straight acacia stems — the Wattle {Acacia 
Two other interesting specimens were obtained at the same locality 
as the last. They are the front tooth of the small grey kangaroo, so 
common in "Western AustraKa (Plate i., fig. 8). These were also 
probably used for fishing, as they appear to have been attached to the 
shafts of spears ; but it is possible that they may have been used only 
as ornaments, such as are often worn by the head men, or medicine 
men of the tribe, usually attached to the beard. 
"We next come to the iron age, of which I have one representative, 
which has evidently been used as a spear-head. It is worked from a 
thin plate of iron, and evidently gave the worker more trouble than 
the flints he was accustomed to, for he has not had sufficient perse- 
verance to bring it to a fine point. 
I have another specimen of the iron age which appears to be a 
chisel, made also out of a thin plate of iron, apparently a piece of hoop 
iron. 
I may mention that the natives are taking very kindly to iron as 
against flint. A knife or tomahawk left carelessly about when we 
had visitors in camp was sure to vanish. A suspected kleptomaniac in 
this respect — after whose visit we missed our best tomahawk — carried 
a neatly-constructed axe or tomahawk, fashioned out of a horse-shoe 
(new), picked up after our first journey. How he managed to cut 
that horse-shoe in half is a mystery to this day. The half horse-shoe, 
carefully sharpened and secured in the usual double handle, seemed to 
be a formidable weapon. 
^ It will be noticed that these fish-spines have a double row of serrations. 
