472 MATHEWS — ROCK CARVINGS AND PAINTINGS. [Nov. 19, 



some land and marine monsters the types of which do not exist in 

 nature, so that it will not be necessary on this occasion to add any 

 farther examples of aboriginal carvings. The present article, 

 taken in conjunction with my former paper, will be found to place 

 the subject of Australian rock pictures in a tolerably complete form 

 before scientific men who may be engaged upon similar investiga- 

 tions in America. 



Rock Paintings. 



Cave paintings are necessarily restricted to those parts of Aus- 

 tralia in which suitable rocks for the purpose are obtainable. They 

 are sometimes met with in weather-worn cavities at the bases of 

 separate boulders, but much more generally in rocky escarpments, 

 of more or less continuity, on the sides of hills or watercourses. 

 These cavities or shelters owe their origin to the natural wasting 

 away of a softer stratum of the rock, leaving a harder layer over- 

 hanging, which forms the roof of the cave. In most cases they get 

 narrower and lower as they go back into the rock ; but some are 

 small at the entrance and become higher and larger as they recede, 

 having a somewhat dome -shaped interior. Some of them are of 

 great extent, being more than one hundred feet in length, upwards 

 of twenty feet high and extending back into the rock about twenty- 

 five feet ; while some are merely shallow crescent-shaped hollows 

 of small dimensions weathered out of the face ot a boulder or 

 escarpment. 



Many of the larger shelters have been used by the natives as 

 camping places for considerable periods. This is evident from the 

 smoke stains on the roofs and also from the remains of ashes and 

 cinders on the floors. In digging into some of these floors, frag- 

 ments of the bones of animals, broken implements such as toma- 

 hawks, knives^ and other articles used by the natives are found 

 covered over with ashes and other debi'is, in some instances to the 

 depth of one or two feet. These shelters are mostly found in the 

 proximity of streams of a more or less permanent character, from 

 which water was probably obtained for camp use during the occu- 

 pancy of the cave. Very small shelters would obviously be unsuit- 

 able for residential purposes. 



1 See my paper on <' Stone Implements Used by the Aborigines of N. S, 

 Wales," Journ. Roy. Soc. iV. S. Wales, xxviii, p. 304, PI. xliii. Fig. 2. 



