eyes of the archæologist, a day so far past that the lapse of time can scarcely be measured by years—:in what way soever these implements are looked at, it cannot be denied that they have a higher significance and a greater value than perhaps any other weapons or tools used by savages.
Knowing full well the importance of the questions involved, I have exerted my best energies to gather together stone implements from all parts of Australia. These will be described, and such information respecting them will be given as, it is hoped, may clear up some points now obscure.
The stone implements used by the natives are as follows:—
(a) Hatchets.
(b) Knives.
(c) Adzes.
(d) Chips of basalt for jagged spears.
(e) Chips of basalt for cutting and scraping skins of animals, &c.
(f) Stones for pounding roots, seeds, &c.
(g) Stones for sharpening spears and hatchets.
(h) Stones for fishing.
(i) Stones used by women in making baskets.
(j) Stones from which ruddle, &c., are obtained.
(k) Sacred stones kept by priests and others.
The hatchets are of various forms, and differ in size and weight; but those of the Victorian natives are nearly all of the same general character. They are provided with wooden handles, as a rule; and the handles are, in Victoria, all of the same shape, and they are fastened to the stone uniformly with cord and gum.[1]
The rocks used for making tomahawks are granite, porphyry, diorite, basalt, lava, metamorphosed sandstone, hard sandstone, dense quartzite resembling hornstone, and granular quartzite. I have seen but few implements made of vein-quartz. The porphyries and diorites are preferred, and nearly all the best tomahawks in my collection are of diorite.
According to Mr. G. H. F. Ulrich, F.G.S., sixty-four tomahawks in my collection may be classed as follows:—
| Greenstone and dense diorite | 18 |
| Aphanite | 13 |
| Nephritic greenstone | 2 |
| Porphyritic rock | 4 |
| Dense black anamesite | 1 |
| Black basalt | 1 |
| Felspathic granite (leptynite) | 1 |
| Metamorphic rock | 14 |
| Quartzite | 8 |
| Hard siliceous sandstone | 2 |
- ↑ Mr. A. W. Howitt informs me that the natives of Cooper's Creek do not fasten wooden handles to the stone. They grasp the tomahawk with the fingers and thumb, holding the blunt end in the hollow of the hand, and use it in cutting exactly as the Tasmanians used the chips of chert which served them as hatchets.
