when his hunger was appeased. It is almost certain that during the period of the large carnivorous marsupials man was not there to contest with the lion the right to the proceeds of the chase.
Chips for cutting and scraping, fragments of tomahawks, and pieces of black basalt, are found on the low Silurian ranges near the rivers and creeks in all parts of Victoria; and wherever the soil is dug or ploughed over any considerable area, old tomahawks are turned up, thus showing the immense period of time that the land has been occupied by the native race.
The same fact is also strongly impressed on the mind when their quarries are examined. One quarry of diorite, near Mount William, in the parish of Lancefield, is of great extent, and the quantities of stone taken away by the natives must have been very great. Another near Kilmore occupies a large area; and there are besides numerous spots where black basalt was quarried.
The nets made by the natives of Australia are similar to those used in Europe. The twine is made strong or slight in accordance with their needs. Sometimes they use kangaroo-grass, and sometimes a fibre obtained from the bark of a tree. In the southern parts of Australia the fibre of the stringybark is usually employed.
The large net made of kangaroo-grass is provided with stone sinkers and bark floats. The hand net is stretched on a bow.
Some of the nets are very well made; and strangers are incredulous when told that they are the work of the natives.
Their fish-hooks, of shell or bone or wood, are all skilfully contrived.
It has been stated that the natives were unacquainted with fish-hooks prior to the arrival of the whites; but this is in all probability a mistake. Cook says "their fish-hooks are very neatly made, and some are exceedingly small," and Péron figures two shell fish-hooks exactly like the shell fish-hook from Rockingham Bay and the ancient bone fish-hook from Gippsland.
The very simple contrivance of wood or bone, described by Mr. J. A. Panton as having been used by the natives of Geelong to take fish, is, it is believed, unknown elsewhere. Something, however, somewhat similar, but barbed, is found in Queensland.
The barbed fish-hooks, made of shell and wood, employed by the natives of New Zealand and the South Seas, are of complex structure, but it is doubtful whether they are better adapted for the intended purpose than the simple shell-hooks of Australia.
The ordinary method of producing fire in Australia is by twirling with the palms of the hands an upright stick. One end is inserted in a hole in a flat piece of soft wood; and, if the operator is skilful, he quickly raises a smoke, and in a few moments a fire. Another, and perhaps a better method—but one practised in Australia, as far as I know, by the natives of the Murray only—is to cut a groove in a log, if there is not a crack that answers the purpose, to fill this with well-powdered dry leaves or dry grass, and rub a wooden knife across the groove. Fire is got very rapidly by this method.
The natives did not necessarily use the fire-sticks very frequently. The women carry fire when the tribe is travelling — a piece of decayed wood, a cone
