ng has a skew in the opposite direction but is
otherwise similar.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

The peculiarity of the boomerang's flight depends mainly on its skew.
The return boomerang is held vertically, the concave side forward, and
thrown in a plane parallel to the surface of the ground, as much
rotation as possible being imparted to it. It travels straight for 30
yds. or more, with nearly vertical rotation; then it inclines to the
left, lying over on the flat side and rising in the air; after
describing a circle of 50 or more yards in diameter it returns to the
thrower. Some observers state that it returns after striking the object;
it is certainly possible to strike the ground without affecting the
return. Throws of 100 yds. or more, before the leftward curve begins,
can be accomplished by Australian natives, the weapon rising as much as
150 ft. in the air and circling five times before returning. The
non-return type may also be made to return in a nearly straight line by
throwing it at an angle of 45 deg., but normally it is thrown like the
return type, and will then travel an immense distance. No accurate
measurements of Australian throws are available, but an English throw of
180 yds. has been recorded, compared with the same thrower's 70 yds.
with the cricket ball.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Flight in Horizontal Plane.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Flight in Vertical Plane.]

The war boomerang in an expert's hand is a deadly weapon, and the
lighter hunting boomerang is also effective. The return boomerang is
chiefly used as a plaything or for killing birds, and is often as
dangerous to the thrower as to the object at which it is aimed.

See Pitt-Rivers (Lane Fox) in _Anthropological and Archaeological
Fragments_, "Primitive Warfare"; also in _Journ. Royal United Service
Inst._ xii. No. 51; _British Ass. Report_ (1872); _Catalogue of
Bethnal Green Collection_, p. 28; Buchner in _Globus_, lxxxviii. 39,
63; G.T. Walker in _Phil. Trans._ cxc. 23; _Wide World Mag._ ii. 626;
_Nature_, xiv. 248, lxiv. 338; Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_,
i. 310-329; Roth, _Ethnological Studies_. (N. W. T.)

BOONE, DANIEL (1734-1820), American pioneer and backwoodsman, of English
descent, was born near the present city of Reading, Pennsylvania, on the
2nd of November (N.S.) 1734. About 1751 his father, Squire Boone, with
his family settled in the Yadkin Valley in what is now Davie county,
North Carolina,