more than two inches. It is grooved so as to admit of the wooden handle being firmly attached to it. It is so much decomposed on the surface as to be easily scratched with the nail, and must have lain covered by the charcoal and the soil of the Mirrn-yong heap for an immense period of time. The thickness of the decomposed outer layer (clay ironstone) is about one-sixteenth of an inch; and when a small portion of this was removed, the rock proved to be a basalt or greenstone. Wye-wye-a-nine, a native of the Murray, informs me that axes of this kind were used for splitting open large trees, so as to get out opossums from the hollows, when it was impossible to reach them in any other way. The name of the implement is Pur-ut-three. Fitted with a suitable handle, the weight would not be less than six or seven pounds. This is a rare form of the tomahawk, and the specimen here figured is undoubtedly very ancient.
The stone axe (Fig. 184) from Coranderrk looks like a pebble from a brook. It seems to have been formed, not by striking off flakes, but by notching it. It is a hard, dense, black greenstone (like aphanite), and how it was notched I cannot imagine. Its weight is one pound one and a half ounces. Its length is six inches and a half, its breadth two inches and a quarter, and its thickness one inch and a half. In section it is lenticular. The cutting edge has symmetrical curves, and the lower part is highly polished. There is a hollow on one side of the upper part of the stone, made probably for attaching the handle with security. This is in all respects an implement of a highly-interesting character. It is in excellent preservation, and the edge is very sharp.
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| FIG. 184.—(Scale ¼.) | FIG. 185.—(Scale ¼.) | FIG. 186.—(Scale ¼.) |
The implement from Lake Tyers (Fig. 185) is a piece of hard granular metamorphic sandstone. Its length is six inches and a half, its breadth two inches and a half, and its thickness one inch and a quarter. Its surfaces are flat, but at the cutting edge it has the usual curves. Its weight is one pound two and a quarter ounces. It is evidently a very old implement. When this instrument was shown to Wye-wye-a-nine, he said it was Tal-kook—very good—and one of the best in the collection.
Another axe from Lake Tyers (Fig. 186) is a hard, nearly black, metamorphic sandstone, from the vicinity, probably, of some mass of granite. It weighs one pound, and is six iuches in length, two inches and a half in breadth, and one inch in thickness. It is a clumsy, ill-made weapon. The cutting edge is roughly formed and not symmetrical, though highly polished. It appears to have been a water-worn fragment obtained from a river-bed.
