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nORX EXPEDITION-ANTHROPOLOGY. 
I also saw them spinning water-worn, round pebbles on the bottoms of 
inverted “billy-cans,” but I saw none of the beautifully balanced tops moulded 
out of clay and provided with a peg, which the natives in the north-east of South 
Australia proper (Blancbewater) spin, in competition against one another, on some 
smooth surface such as a piece of tin. At the locality mentioned I saw one spun 
by a lubra remain rotating, or as boys would call it “asleep,” for four minutes, and 
even this period I believe can be exceeded. 
On a sandstone bluff abutting on the Finke near Crown Point, Professor 
Tate, in the course of one of his geological excursions, noticed on a small plateau 
small rounded boulders arranged so as to form avenues several yards long and 
about a yard wide. These, we were told, were made by the boys in play, and I 
have heard of the same kind of practice in other localities, though I have no 
knowledge that it is associated with any definite game. 
Smoke Signals. 
A good deal of discussion has recently taken place in the press of this colony, 
as the result of a paper on “ Smoke Signals ” contributed to the Adelaide Meeting 
of the Australasian Association for’ the Advancement of Science, 1893, which 
affirms that the natives have what may be called coded signals, whereby sundry 
information can be, and is, transmitted for long distances by means of smokes of 
different characters. 
I made many imiuiries on this subject when on the Horn Expedition, but 
could gain no information which supported Mr. Magarey’s contention. Of course 
smoke signals are greatly made use of, but if for a special purpose, they are 
prearranged, and of the simplest character. Our guide Harry, a tracker in the 
service of the police, said that in his tribe (Arunta) two simultaneous smokes were 
regarded as the sign of a camp, and four as that of a permanent camp, but I 
have reason to doubt whether even this limited code is in force generally. Beyond 
that due to the number of smokes there is no doubt that some degree of variety 
in the signals is possible by reason of the character which they can be made to 
assume according to the material consumed. And one may say this without 
admitting the numerous varieties which seem possible to Mi’. Magarey. For 
instance, we had the occasion to observe daily the characteristic evanescent puffs 
arising from the ignition of clumps of the inflammable Porcupine grass (Triodia)^ 
which could nearly always be recognised as something different from the smoke of 
burning scrub. But admitting the possibility of variations in the character of 
