took those that were most easily to be got. Mr. Murray says that the fragment was probably broken off during use, and that it must have been carried many miles, as no stone of a similar character is found in the district.
An axe of an unusual form (Fig. 195) was dug out of a garden at Winchelsea. It is much weathered and decomposed on the surface, and is exactly like a piece of Mesozoic sandstone, but on taking off a small portion of the crust it is seen to be a bluish-grey dioritic rock. It is polished all over, and must at one time have had a very keen cutting edge. It is deeply grooved in the place to be grasped by the wooden handle, and for greater security there is a projecting point or shoulder on that side where the wooden handle would be fastened with sinews. It is four inches in length, three inches and three-quarters in breadth, and one inch and three-quarters in thickness. On one side the groove is highly polished by the friction of the wooden handle. It must have lain in the soil a very long time. The whole surface is decomposed to the depth of one-sixteenth of an inch. Its weight is fourteen ounces.
A tomahawk, in shape somewhat like that shown in Fig. 195, but not grooved for the handle, and of a smaller size, was found near Geelong. It is a hard, dense, nearly black, quartzite, resembling greenstone. The curved surfaces of the cutting edge are good, and highly polished. It is three inches in length, and rather more than two in breadth. It is one inch and a half in thickness, and weighs eight ounces and a half.
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| FIG. 195.—(Scale ⅓.) | FIG. 196.—(Scale ⅓.) |
Mr. Alfred Howitt sent me a well-formed axe (Fig. 196), which was found in cutting a race on the Dargo River. Mr. Browne, the claimholder, who discovered this and another tomahawk in making excavations for the race, informed Mr. Howitt that they were buried about a foot deep in the soil and fine gravel. The locality is the crest of a steep spur immediately below a capping of volcanic rock, and a dense scrub covers the whole place. It is not possible to form an estimate of the age of the tomahawks, but it is certain that they must be very ancient. The implement is five inches in length, two inches and a half in breadth, and nearly two inches in thickness. The cutting edge, like that of others of the best kind, exhibits beautiful curves, and it is now so sharp as to cut hard wood easily. It looks like a water-worn stone from a river-bed, and has not been altered at all except at the cutting edge,
