COASTS OP AUSTRALIA. 
3 55 
vass lying on the ground, from which it would is 20. 
appear that the place had recently been visited jutyii. 
by Europeans. 
I landed, the next morning, with a theodolite, 22. 
in order to obtain some bearings from the sum- 
mit of the hill over the beach, but my intention 
was frustrated by a visit from the natives, five of 
whom made their appearance upon the hills as 
the boat arrived at the shore. The party con- 
sisted of three men and two boys : one of the 
men carried a spear, another had a boomerang*, 
of a smaller size, but otherwise similar to that 
which the Port Jackson natives use; and the 
* The boomerang is a very formidable weapon ; it is a short, 
curved piece of heavy wood, and is propelled through the air by the 
hand in so skilful a manner, that the thrower alone knows where it 
will fall. It is generally thrown against the wind, and takes a rapid 
rotary motion. It is used by the natives with success in killing the 
kangaroo, and is, I believe, more a hunting than a warlike weapon. 
The size varies from eighteen to thirty inches in length, and from 
two to three inches broad. The shape is that of an obtuse angle 
rather than a crescent : one in my possession is twenty-six inches 
long, its greatest breadth two inches and a half, thickness half an 
inch, and the angle formed from the centre is 140°. Boomerang 
is the Port Jackson term for this weapon, and may be retained for 
want of a more descriptive name. There is a drawing of it by 
M. Lesueur in Plate xxir. (Fig. 6,) of Peron’s Atlas ; it is there 
described by the name of sabre a ricochet. This plate may, by the 
way, be referred to for drawings of the greater number of the wea- 
pons used by the Port Jackson natives, all of which, excepting the 
identical boomerang, are very well delineated. M. Lesueur has, 
however, failed in his sabre a ricochet. 
2 A 2 
