f these throwing-sticks, or
mearas, were three inches broad and two feet six inches long. See Woodcut
3.

The spears are very slender, and are made from a species of leptospermum
that grows abundantly in swampy places; they are from nine to ten feet
long and barbed with a piece of hard wood, fastened on by a ligature of
bark gummed over; we saw none that were not barbed, or had not a hole at
the end to receive the hooked point of the meara. Woodcut 4 shows the
method by which this weapon is propelled.

The hammer, or kaoit, appears to be used only for the purpose of breaking
open shellfish, and killing seals and other animals by striking them on
the head; for it has no sharpened edge to be used as a chopping or
cutting instrument; the handle is from twelve to fifteen inches long,
having one end scraped to a sharp point, and on each side at the other
end two pieces of hard stone fixed and cemented by a mass of gum, which,
when dry, is almost as hard as the stone itself; the hammer is about one
pound weight. See Woodcut 5.

The knife, or taap, is perhaps the rudest instrument of the sort that
ever was made; the handle is about twelve inches long, scraped to a point
like the hammer, and has, at the other end, three or four splinters of
sharp-edged quartz stuck on in a row with gum, thus forming a sort of
ragged instrument. See Woodcut 6. It is thus used: after they have put
within their teeth a sufficient mouthful of seal's flesh, the remainder
is held in their left hand, and, with the taap in the other, they saw
through, and separate the flesh.* Every native carries one or more of
these knives in his belt besides the hammer which is also an
indispensable instrument with them.

(*Footnote. A very good idea may be obtained of the manner in which these
taaps are used, by referring to Captain Lyon's drawing of the Esquimaux
sledges at page 290 of Parry's Second Voyage: the natives of King
George's Sound however hold the knife underhanded, and cut upwards.)

We did not perceive that these people acknowledged any chief or superior
among them; the two parties that collected daily on the opposite sides of
the harbour evidently belonged to the same tribe for they occasionally
mixed with each other. Their habitations were probably scattered about in
different parts for when the natives went away for the night they
separated into several groups, not more than three or four going
together, and these generally returned in company