Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/149

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Kensington ^[uaeuDi, proved at once that they were niissiles for straight- forwanl progress. The Auatraliana used utany varieties of such weapuiib, but they ilid not call thcni returning boomerangs, and Jt is a pity that by aa unhappy confusion of terma the circling instnunent has been associated with the progreesive one. If any pei'son were to show an AuBtmlian native the instrument figured 20 in the Catalogue, and fitate<l (p. IM) as "found to Hy with a return Hight like the Australian boomerang/' the Australian wouhl need great command of cotmtenance to rentraiu hi^^ laughter. 'Vhe Eiiithor regrets that be can furnish no geientitic explanntion of the course of the circling instrument, but in consoled by the fact that i valued frienil— the late Professor VV. F*. Wilson, a Senior Wrangler of Cambridge— when he saw the instrument thrown in Austiulia, declared that no explanation had been given of it.^ |mth. Eeaaons which ap[*ly to the return of the card were, in his opinion, inapplicable. [1896. The minibei" of people whom the author met in Knglaud (in a few abort years) who had implicitly believed that the plaything was a weapon for w:ir proved how hard it is to weed out a popular error.]