basalt has as yet been observed in situ is near the Little Coliban River, about seven miles west of Kyneton, and it forms there apparently irregular thin layers and disconnected patches in the common grey vesicular doleritic basalt of the district.[1]
Concerning the mode of occurrence of the chips—I observed them most abundantly on the slopes of softly-rising hills, in some places several inches beneath the surface, but also on the surface and in crevices of outcropping rocks on the tops of the highest Silurian ranges in the Fryer's Creek, Yandoit, Mount Tarrangower, and other districts—quite into the dense forest. In fact they appear so generally distributed that any one, I believe, whose attention has been directed to them, could not fail to find one or more or several of these chips on any route he might choose through the ranges mentioned. Their mode of transport to such heights and distances, exceeding thirty miles from the Little Coliban River, was an interesting puzzle to me for a long time. The wild idea of considering them as having been carried over the country in consequence of submersion and tilting of the strata beneath the sea first presented itself, and was, of course, soon discarded; and the proposition for some time gained favor that they might have been transported and scattered by emus, whose proclivity for swallowing hard angular bodies to aid digestion is well known. However, the finding near the Muckleford Creek of a pretty large piece of the rock, and near it a number of smaller ones, all with at least one, and some with two sharp knife-like edges, solved the riddle, in proving conclusively that human hands had been at work there.
No doubt these chips have, during past generations, been carried about, and lost or thrown away by the Aboriginals of the country, who used them instead of knives for fashioning their wooden weapons, skinning opossums, and other work requiring cutting and scraping."
Any one who will take the trouble to examine the country as Mr. Ulrich has done will corroborate the statements made by him. Most of the flakes and fragments are such as were struck off by the Aboriginals when shaping their tomahawks; but not a few were made expressly for scraping the skins of beasts taken in the chase, for fitting into the heads of spears, and for knives or adzes.
When Mr. Ulrich was examining the mineral districts of South Australia, he observed that chips and flakes of basalt were to be found in almost every locality. He sent me one—a chip struck off in forming a tomahawk, as suggested by the natives to whom I submitted it for examination—which he picked up on a low rise twelve miles north of Pekina, about three hundred miles north of Adelaide. Broken tomahawks, broken adzes, chips and flakes of basalt, and near the coast old Mirrn-yong heaps, which for ages have been covered with drift-sand, are from time to time discovered. All these show that the Aboriginals, living in exactly the same state as they were found when
- ↑ Similar patches occur in the Newer Volcanic rock at Malmsbury, associated with small irregular bands of hematite. Good specimens have been collected and sent to me by Mr. Shakespeare.
