A. The spear of the desert man is either sharp pointed, spatulate
pointed, or barbed. They vary in length from 8 feet to 10 feet, and in
diameter, at the head (the thickest portion), from 1/2 inch to 1 inch. As
a rule, a man carries a sheaf of half a dozen or more.

B. In the Kimberley District the spears are of superior manufacture and
much more deadly. The heads are made of quartz, or glass, or insulators
from the telegraph line. Before the advent of the white man quartz only
was used, and from it most delicately shaped spear-heads were made, the
stone being either chipped or pressed. I fancy the former method is the
one employed--so I have been told, though I never saw any spear-heads in
process of manufacture.

Since the white man has settled a portion of Kimberley, glass bottles
have come into great request amongst the natives, and most deadly weapons
are made--spears that, I am told, will penetrate right through a
cattle-beast, and which are themselves unimpaired unless they strike on a
bone. When first the telegraph line from Derby to Hall's Creek and thence
to Wyndham was constructed, constant damage used to be done to it by the
natives who climbed the poles and smashed the insulators for spear-head
making. So great a nuisance did this become that the Warden actually
recommended the Government to place heaps of broken bottles at the foot
of each pole, hoping by this means to save the insulators by supplying
the natives with glass!

The stone or glass heads are firmly fixed in a lump of spinifex gum, and
this is held firm on the shaft by kangaroo tail sinews. The shaft is of
cane for half its length, the upper part being of bamboo, which is found
on the banks of the northern rivers.

Up to a distance of eighty to one hundred yards the spears can be thrown
with fair accuracy and great velocity.

The length of these spears varies from 10 feet to 15 feet. The one shown
in sketch is of glass, and is one-half actual size.

In the Nor'-West (that is, the country lying between the Gascoyne and
Oakover rivers), wooden spear-heads with enormous barbs are used.
Sometimes the barbs are placed back to back, so that on entering a body
they can be pulled neither forward nor back.

C. THE WOOMERA (or Wommera)--the throwing-board--held in the hand as in
sketch. The spears rest on the board, and are kept in place by the first
finger and thumb and by the bone point A, which fits into a little hollow
on the end of the shaft