with which it is tied is made of the fibres of some bulbous root. The gum is hard, and resembles that got from the xanthorrhœa. It is heavy and clumsy, but the grinding and polishing of the stone must have given much trouble to the artist. The weight of the implement is two pounds four and a quarter ounces. It is probable that it was used for splitting large trees; and in handling it and proving its strength, one is justified in supposing that it had been made for rough work of this kind, and not for cutting holes in climbing.
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| FIG. 181.–(Scale ¼.) |
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| FIG. 182.–(Scale ⅛.) |
A very large stone implement (Fig. 182), in the possession of Mr. W. E. Stanbridge, is one of the most remarkable of all the stone weapons yet found in Victoria. It was discovered in a field at Daylesford. It is supposed to have been used for digging roots, and in sinking holes to get at the wombat. It was made by striking off flakes; but the cutting part is ground and polished. It appears to be a piece of metamorphosed sandstone. It is about fourteen inches in length, five inches in breadth, and rather more than one inch and three-quarters in thickness.
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| FIG. 183.–(Scale ¼.) |
The tomahawks in my collection which have been found at various times in the soil of gardens, in fields when they have been ploughed, or in Mirrn-yong heaps, or on the surface of the ground, or in the beds of streams, are of course without handles. Many of them, as will be seen from the figures and descriptions, are remarkably well made; and the differences in form and mode of manufacture are so great as to make one regard them with much interest. Only those which illustrate most completely the art of this people are figured; others are described in words only.
One large axe-head in my collection (Fig. 183) was dug out of a Mirrn-yong heap at Lake Condah by Mr. John Green. Its weight is four pounds eight and a half ounces. Its length is eight inches, its breadth five inches, and its thickness rather
