GEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL OBSERA'ATIONS— ETHERIDGE. 49 



in the line of drainage."* May it not be possible that the starting 

 point of the Burragorang Valley was some great earth-movement, 

 possibly connected with the great faultings which "probably took 

 place towards the close of the Tertiary epoch,"! 0>i6 of which, 

 known as the Lapstone Hill fault, assisted in the formation of 

 the abrupt eastern margin of the Blue Mountains 1 



With regard to more recent deposits, many of the gullies running 

 up through the Upper Marine beds, and the Coal-measures, exhibit 

 small waterfalls, around which are deposited considerable masses 

 of calcareous tufa. 



The Aborigines of the WoUondilly and Nattai Valleys, must, 

 from local accounts, have existed in considerable numbers, and 

 are now only represented by interments, carved trees, wizards' 

 hands, and charcoal drawings in rock shelters along the precipitous 

 escarpments. 



The first objects investigated under this head were the "Hands- 

 on-the-Rock," which had been reported by Mr. Cuneo. The 

 "rock" consists of a huge mass of Hawkesbury Sandstone 

 (Plate XII) about seventeen feet in breadth and length, hollowed 

 out on the side overlooking the river to the extent of six feet. 

 It is perched on the side of a gentle rise from the WoUondilly, 

 having rolled from the higher ground above, and alongside the 

 tj-ack from the Nattai Junction to Cox's River, in the immediate 

 south-west corner of the Parish Werriberri. The cavernous front 

 of the rock is fifteen feet broad, and twelve feet high. On the 

 back wall are depicted a number of red hands, both right and 

 left. The principal ones, arranged roughly in a sigmoidal curve, 

 are reproduced in Plate XII, with the extended fingers invariably 

 pointing upwards. The other hands are irregularly scattered to 

 the right and below those just referred to, and altogether there 

 may be as many as seventeen. Under the principal hands are 

 four white curved bands, resembling boomerangs or ribs, the 

 whole of the hands being relieved, as is usually the case with 

 these representations, by white splash-work. The hand-marks in 

 this shelter differ, however, from any I have seen before by 

 an unquestionably previous preparation of the rock surface for 

 their reception by incising the surface to the shape of each hand, 

 thus leaving a slightly raised margin around each. I have 

 recently givenf an epitome of our knowledge of these hand 

 imprints, their method of preparation, and supposed significance 

 sufiiciently full to render any further reference unnecessary at 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 18G6, xxii., p. 445. 



fC. S. Wilkinson, Notes on the Geol. N.S. Wales, 2ad Edit., 1887, p. 70. 



t Records Geol. Survey N.S. Wales, 1892, iii., Pt. i., p. 34. 



