Mr. Suetonius H. Officer, of Murray Downs, has collected three axes on the Lower Murray. One is of dense greenstone, one of porphyritic rock, and the third a quartzite with felspar enclosed—a kind of felspathic granite. They are all good axes, with excellent cutting edges. The axe of porphyritic rock is six inches in length and two inches in breadth. It has a sharp curved cutting edge, no more than an inch and a quarter in breadth. This is apparently a very old weapon, and somewhat resembles the axe found by Mr. Arrowsmith.
Mr. Reginald A. F. Murray found on the banks of the River Leigh a fragment of an axe, of which little more than the polished cutting edge remains, greatly resembling in form the stone axes used in the western parts of Queensland. It is a piece of greenstone.
Lieut.-Col. Champ has added to my collection a small well-finished axe of black siliceous porphyry, also from the Leigh, which has a very fine edge; and a portion of an ancient tomahawk, showing only the half of the cutting edge, of very hard metamorphic rock.
Mr. John Lynch, the Mining Surveyor at Smythesdale, obtained from a miner at Bottle Hill, near Carngham, a very well-made tomahawk of aphanite, which was found in a puddling machine. It had been lying, as suggested by Mr. Lynch, on or very near the surface of the ground where the wash-dirt was deposited, and had been thrown with the wash-dirt into the machine. The cutting edge, less than an inch in breadth, is well polished, and very sharp.
Two axes from the River Darling are interesting. One, of very dense, tough, granular greenstone, resembles that obtained by Mr. Panton in the Munara district.—(Fig. 181.) It is five inches and a half in length, four inches in breadth, and in the middle about one inch and a half in thickness. It weighs one pound fifteen ounces. It has a very fine and rather pointed cutting edge. It was found by Mr. William Hoffmann.
The other, brought to Victoria by Mr. Darbyshire, is of prase-like quartzite, very tough and hard, and with a good edge. The edge is highly polished, but otherwise it is rudely formed. It is a small axe, not larger than those commonly used in Victoria.
Mr. Molesworth Greene has allowed me to make a fac-simile of an axe of great size, which was lately brought from the Paroo, in Queensland, by Mr. A. Sullivan. It is eight inches in length, six inches in breadth in the broadest part, and two inches in thickness. It is an oval-shaped weapon, highly finished, and, for a great extent around the cutting edge, well polished. The wooden handle is not attached, but the place of attachment is apparent, and on one side there is a mass of gum adhering to it. It is as large and as heavy as the implement (Fig. 183) found at Lake Condah.
Another tomahawk, of dense greenstone, shaped somewhat like the American axes made by Collins and Co., was obtained by Mr. A. Sullivan on the Bulloo Downs, Paroo. From the appearance of the surface, one would suppose that it had been buried in the earth for a long period.
A curious axe, sent to me by Mr. J. McDonnell, of Brisbane, Queensland, is an example of those used in the Moreton Bay district. It is a rude rhom-
