1897.1 MATHEWS — ROCK CARVINGS AND PAINTINGS. 477 



The plate shows four hands — one of them being the right — done in 

 white stencil. Amongst these is a human figure in black outline 

 filled in with shading of the same color. There is permanent 

 water in Wareng creek, five or six chains distant. 



Cave 2 is situated within Portion No. 41, in the parish of Cool- 

 calwin, county of Phillip, about ten chains from Jolly's Downfall 

 creek, in which water is permanent. The cave is in a large isolated 

 sandstone boulder, near the base of a rocky spur, and the entrance 

 faces the northwest, so that it gets the afternoon sun throughout 

 the year. Its length is fourteen feet, depth eighteen feet, with a 

 height at the entrance of three feet, which increases to five and a 

 half feet inside. The rocky floor has several natural interstices 

 extending the whole length of the cave, with a few others nearly at 

 right angles to them, caused by the disintegration of the softer 

 parts of the sandstone, giving the floor the appearance, at first sight, 

 of having been paved. 



All the drawings in this cave, except the turtle, are executed in 

 the stencil method, in red color. There are fourteen hands, several 

 of which have some of the fingers missing ; two are smaller than the 

 rest ; and in one the arm is shown nearly as far as the elbow. There 

 is a rude representation of what may be either a turtle or a beetle, 

 outlined in black and filled in with a wash of white. A child's 

 right foot and two small bent objects complete the drawings. 



Cave 3. This rock shelter is on Portion No. 81, of one hundred 

 and eight acres, parish of Bulga, county of Hunter. Its length is 

 fifty-four feet, depth eleven feet, and its height varies from four and 

 a half to six and a half feet — the roof being level, but the floor 

 irregular. The cave faces N. 20° E., and looks out upon a small 

 watercourse. These drawings are all upon the roof, and are done 

 in white stencil. They consist of eleven hands, one of which is 

 very small ; two native tomahawks with handles attached, and two 

 other weapons. The position of the hands as well as the weapons 

 is unusual and were probably intended to convey some meaning. 



Cave 4. This cave is situated within Portion No. 31, of sixty- 

 one and a half acres, parish of Merroo, county of Cook, near the 

 right bank of a small gully in which water can be obtained during 

 the winter months. It has been worn out of a low escarpment of 

 Hawkesbury sandstone and faces the west ; its length is twenty- 

 three and a half feet and the depth eleven feet. Owing to the dome- 



