The boomerang is a very formidable weapon; it is a short, curved piece of heavy wood, and is propelled through the air by the hand in so skilful a manner that the thrower alone knows where it will fall.
It is generally thrown against the wind and takes a rapid rotary motion.
It is used by the natives with success in killing the kangaroo, and is, I believe, more a hunting than a warlike weapon.

The size varies from eighteen to thirty inches in length, and from two to three inches broad.
The shape is that of an obtuse angle rather than a crescent: one in my possession is twenty-six inches long, its greatest breadth two inches and a half, thickness half an inch, and the angle formed from the centre is 140 degrees.

Boomerang is the Port Jackson term for this weapon, and may be retained for want of a more descriptive name.

There is a drawing of it by M.Lesueur in Plate 22 Figure 6 of Peron's Atlas; it is there described by the name of sabre a ricochet.

This plate may, by the way, be referred to for drawings of the greater number of the weapons used by the Port Jackson natives, all of which, excepting the identical boomerang, are very well delineated.