BY WALTER R. HARPER. 325 



The hands here number over thirty, irregularly disposed and 

 of different degrees of distinctness, but all confined to one 

 portion of the wall towards the northern end. Doubtless this 

 was intentional, but why one portion was chosen rather than 

 another is, by our present knowledge, inexplicable. All are 

 faded, but I suppose we are justified in considering the faintest 

 impressions as the most ancient and not the result of carelessness 

 or faulty pigment. Yet even if this view is adopted, we cannot 

 trace a long series of single impressions made at regular or 

 irregular intervals of time, for I daresay that at the most only 

 two or three gradations, depending on their present condition, 

 could be formed from the whole of them, and these divisions would 

 not depend upon their relative position. 



None are placed so high as to be beyond the reach of a man of 

 average statute; none so low as to necessitate stooping in the act 

 of imposition; and none point directly downwards. 



In addition to these single hands, a strange combination 

 appears on the back wall about 18 inches from the floor, taking 

 the form of two hands, one that of a very young child and the 

 other that of a much older child, the palms of which are joined 

 by a narrow semicircular band or Ioojd of pigment. Where the 

 impression ends and the painting begins I could not discover, as 

 the figure is very faint and blurred by the smoke from a fire just 

 below it.* 



The third cave, marked C on the map, overlooks a small cove 

 known as Little Jibbon or Gunyah Beach, lying between Bun- 

 deena and Jibbon Beaches. The Government wharf at the 

 eastern extremity of Bundeena is almost within a stone's throw 

 of this beautifully situated gunyah. At the top of a steep 

 incline rising directly from the beach and protected on every side 

 from the winds — for large trees shelter its opening to the north — • 

 it must have formed an ideal aboriainal dwelling. The roof is 



* For further information on the subject of the "red hands," see 

 " Idiographic Drawings by the Aborigines at Weeny Creek," l)y R. 

 Etheridge, Junr. Records Geol. Survey N.8.W. VoL iii. p. 33. 



