12 
A Papuan Relic. 
By the liberality of Mr. W. Trotter, of Murua (commonly called 
Woodlark Island) the writer has been fortunate enough to obtain 
evidence confirmatory of a late conjecture of his, one which man 
possibly or probably have seemed to require additional proof. Certain 
objects noticed in the last number of these annals (No. 6), under the 
heading u Papuan Charms," were thought to shew that in the past 
New Guinea has been peopled by a race on a higher level of civilization 
than that of its present occupants. Support of the inference now 
comes in the shape of a stone pestle or muller, which not only tells 
the same tale of superior art, but may through its environment, yield 
some indication of the degree of antiquity allowable to its artificer. 
The implement, represented on Plate I, was met with under 3 feet of 
superficial gravel at the bottom of the same extinct river-bed whence 
were extracted the fossil bones of dugong, turtle, and crocodile 
described in the number aforesaid. In form it reminds one most of 
a short hyacinth glass with a bulb of the plant in its usual position. 
Its base is, as it should be, gently and regularly convex ; its conical 
body, suddenly dilated above into a thick collar, affords to the hand 
a steady firmness of grip ; an obtusely conical and quite unnecessary 
knob, surmounting the collar, testifies to an impulse of the artistic 
faculty. As a whole, it is as symmetrical as one could expect of a 
work done without rule and callipers ; the periphery of a transverse 
section taken across the plane of any of its short diameters deviates 
but little from a true circle. 
Its dimensions are these : — Total height, 169mm. ; diameter at 
base, 88mm. ; at neck, 43mm ; of collar, 54mm. The material 
chosen for its manufacture by its designer was a fragment of diabase 
or diorite, the rock which an obliging correspondent, Mr. J. Taaffe, 
informs us is the prevailing geological feature of the island, and 
apparently the toughest stone to be met with there. In the imple- 
ment it is now decomposed and partly kaolinised to a depth which 
cannot be ascertained without risk of injury to the specimen. Its 
surface is roughened by the granules of an ochreous crust, 3mm. in 
thickness, derived from the ferruginous constituents of the rock or 
from the superincumbent gravel. Where the surface has been 
abraded by the pick, the colour of greenstone is still, though faintly, 
visible. 
What purpose this well-made instrument was made to serve can 
hardly be a matter of doubt ; it is sufficiently indicated by the con- 
vexity of its base and handy form of its body. On placing it in the 
hands of a friendj he at once grasped it as the man who made it, or 
his wife, grasped it, and made with it, as did they, the motions proper 
for the reduction of substances to powder, On the other hand, the 
natives of the island, when shewn the relic, declared that they did 
not know the use of it ; a fact by no means surprising, considering 
their only substitute for it, a natural pebble. Had they found the 
