AN ACTINOCERAS FROM N.W. AUSTRALIA — ETHERIDGE. 
7 
of Aboriginal spears, it is in one piece, and not with the head 
separately formed, and lashed or cemented on. 1 take it to be a 
hand-thrown weapon, and not propelled with the assistance of a 
womerah. The head of the spear, for eight and a-lialf inches 
from the apex, is blackened, then live alternating white and black 
bands follow occupying in the aggregate one foot, three of the 
bands white and two black, From this point downwards, to 
within nine inches of the proximal end, are six serpentine, but not 
encircling, continuous grooves, each bearing a series of close, back- 
wardly directed, incised barbs, or teeth, and rendered prominent 
by having been coloured black. Spears similarly handed at the 
apex have been figured before, but neither Angas, Eyre, AV ood, 
Smyth, or Knight, in their respective works, have given an 
illustration of one similarly ornamented with incised sculpture or 
decoration. With the exception of this feature, it is one of the 
type of such simple spears as the Uwinda , of the Murray River,* * * § 
or the Koy-yun . f Mr. E. M, Curr, however, states J that the 
Blacks of Hinchinbrook Island, and the adjacent mainland used 
carved spears, but ho does not give particulars. 
Smyth figures a simple spear with tho distal end, or apex, 
segmented by white and black bauds from West Australia, § but 
otherwise it completely differs from the present weapon. 
An ACTINOCERAS from NORTH-WEST AUSTRALIA. 
By R. Etheridge, Junk., Curator. 
(Plate iii.) 
I am not aware that this interesting genus has so far been 
recorded from tho Carboniferous rocks of West Australia. A 
rather lino example exists in our collection from the Lennard 
* Angas; S. Australia Illustrated, 1846, t. 51, f. 34. 
f Smyth; Aborigines of Victoria, i., 1878, p. 307, f. 83. 
% Australian Race, ii., 1886, p. 418. 
§ Smyth; loc. cit p. 337, f. 143. 
