198 MATHEWS — AUSTRALIAN ROCK CARVINGS. [May 7, 



or twenty holes altogether. These holes are not in any symmetrical 

 design, but appear scattered irregularly over the surface of the shield, 

 and have probably been intended for ornamentation. The ethno- 

 logical collection of the Australian Museum in Sydney contains a 

 hielaman, or shield, from Queensland which has a longitudinal line 

 and two median horizontal lines, and is ornamented with a ground- 

 work of red dots. On the other hand, these marks may be intended 

 to represent the indentations made by spears. 



Near this shield is a hollow, or ''pot-hole," in which water col- 

 lects in wet weather. Around the margin of this small pool of 

 water are a large number of grooves or hollows worn by the abo- 

 rigines in sharpening their stone tomahawks. For illustrations and 

 descriptions of similar grinding places, see my paper on ''Some 

 Stone Implements Used by the Aborigines of New South Wales," 

 Jour. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales ^ xxvii, pp. 301-305, Plate 43, Fig. 3. 



Figs. 7-13. These carvings are all on the same flat rock, situated 

 within Portion No. 1140, of forty acres, in the Parish of Manly 

 Cove. The first three are apparently intended for eels, varying in 

 length from four feet three inches to six feet one inch. Figs. 11 to 

 13 are all of the same kind of fish, but of different sizes. I am un- 

 able to say definitely what fish is intended to be represented, but it 

 has been suggested perhaps that they are grupers. The length of 

 the smallest is two feet four inches, and that of the largest four 

 feet two inches. 



Fig. 14. This drawing, which is on the same rock as Fig. 26, 

 represents a man about five feet eight inches high, with a boomerang 

 lying near him. The left hand has four fingers and the right five. 

 The distance from the right toe to the centre of the boomerang is 

 one foot two inches, the length of the latter being two feet four 

 inches. The end of one of the weapons shown in Fig. 60 almost 

 touches the right foot. 



Fig. 15. This well-executed figure of a buck kangaroo is carved 

 on a large flat rock of Hawkesbury sandstone, near the southern 

 boundary of Portion No. 717 in the Parish of Manly Cove. The 

 drawing appears to have been intended to represent the animal bent 

 down in the attitude of grazing. The eye, one of the ears and the 

 mouth are shown, the latter being open, which is unusual. 



Figs. 16 and 17. These carvings are found on the perpendicular 

 face of a large standstone rock about five yards from the left shore 

 of Cowan Creek, about seven or eight chains above its confluence 



