are as good as those of the best American axes. It is six and a half inches in length, three and a quarter inches in breadth at the broadest part, and nearly one inch and a quarter in thickness. The wooden handle is firmly fixed to the stone without gum or stringybark wedges. The weight is one pound twelve and a half ounces.
A Victorian tomahawk, exactly like many of those used in the north-western parts of New South Wales and in Queensland, is shown in Fig. 179. The wooden handle is stout, and is fastened with gum and cord. The part grasped with the hand is also tied for better security.
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| FIG. 179.—(Scale ¼.) |
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| FIG. 180.—(Scale ¼.) |
Fig. 180 represents a stone tomahawk from the Burdekin River, North-Eastern Australia. It was in the possession of the late Mr. Matthew Hervey, and is an excellent, well-made implement, worthy of preservation. The stone is an altered slate. It has been made by striking off flakes; and the cutting edge is beautifully formed and highly polished. The head where the handle grasps it is covered with a gum obtained perhaps from the xanthorrhœa, and the junction is perfect. The wooden handle has been split from the strong runner of some creeping plant. It is tough, very strong, and somewhat elastic. The cord which binds the two parts of the handle near the head is made of fibres obtained from the root of a plant resembling the lily, and is neatly and well twisted. This implement is, I believe, named Karra-gain by the natives of the Burdekin. This is one of the best native tomahawks I have seen. It was obtained from a wild tribe quite unacquainted with the arts of Europeans.
A large and rather remarkakle tomahawk (Fig. 181) was brought from the Munara district by Mr. J. A. Panton. The stone is a hard, very dense, dark-green aphanite (a fine-grained variety of diabase). It is beautifully polished quite up to the handle. The breadth is four inches and three-quarters, the length is five inches, and the thickness about an inch and a half. The handle is apparently of light wood, coarsely fashioned; and the twisted cord
