piece of metamorphic nodular schist, and the Fahlunitic minerals are decomposed and washed out. The siliceous base alone is left on the surface.
Another, of felsite porphyry, is also ancient. It is almost perfect. A small piece is broken off the cutting edge.
A flat, nearly square axe of very fine granular dense diorite greenstone has a good cutting edge, but the grinding extends over a surface no more than half an inch on each side. This implement is altogether different from the hatchets now used.
The fourth—of metamorphic sandstone, like quartzite—has been formed by striking off flakes. It is well ground, has a good edge, and is evidently more recent than any of the others found in the garden.
The fifth—of dense quartzite—is an excellent implement, and from the appearance of the upper part, where the wooden handle was fixed, has probably been disused but for a comparatively short time. Its weight is one pound nine and three-quarter ounces—nearly double the weight of any of the others.
A very small tomahawk, of fine-grained dense siliceous metamorphic sandstone, was found by one of Mr. Robert Anderson's servants in the "Cups," at Cape Schanck. It has a remarkably good edge. It is one of the best axes in my collection.
Three small, neatly made axes, with well-polished cutting edges, sent to me by the Honorable Theodotus J. Sumner, M.L.C., were found near Tyabb, on the western shore of Western Port. One is of aphanite, and two of metamorphic rock.
One sent from Coranderrk is of aphanite—small, ill-shaped, but with a keen edge; and another, of very fine-grained siliceous sandstone, is triangular, and when fitted with a handle must have been a very useful implement.
At Green Hills, near Mooroolbark, Mr. William Turner found two axes—one somewhat flat, and made by striking off flakes, but with the usual well-ground cutting edge; and another nearly round, and with a narrow sharp edge. The latter is a piece of hard, dense, tough metamorphic rock.
The Honorable W. A. C. à'Beckett has sent me a small axe, found near Cranbourne. It is a dense aphanite, with, in places, a porphyritic texture. It has a cutting edge, and one side is flat and beautifully polished. One cannot say why this side was polished. The stone may have been used for grinding and polishing other axes. It is the only specimen of the kind I have seen.
Of the axes found near Melbourne I possess only two specimens. One—a very neatly-formed implement—was found in a paddock near my house. It is composed of fine-grained laminated felspathic granite, resembling leptynite or white stone. The edge is highly polished and very sharp. The other is unfinished. I picked it up many years ago in the bed of the Moonee Ponds (a creek). It is a fragment of metamorphic sandstone, chipped and shaped, but not ground.
I have obtained from Mr. Oct. Lloyd a small axe of very fine-grained hard greenstone, which he found near the Red Bluff at Brighton. It is a moderately good axe.
