Aboriginal Rock Painting. 31 



matter of considerable difficulty and necessitates very close and 

 careful inspection for several reasons. The outlines are weather- 

 worn and in various places it is next to impossible to distinguish 

 them from the red blotches naturally in the stone. The difficulty 

 of copying has been increased through the ambition of white 

 people to secure a cheap fame by scribbling over the aboriginal 

 work with charcoal. One feels indignant that so rare a relic of 

 aboriginal art should be wantonly desecrated and defaced. 



The paintings were discovered in 1866 by Messrs. Muirhead 

 and Carter. The latter affirms that they look just about as 

 fresh as when h'rst seen. This is not surprising, as they are 

 perfectly protected from rain. The oldest blacks professed to 

 have seen them in their boyhood, but were so unfamiliar with 

 the spot that they could not find it in spite of a day's deliberate 

 searching. The authorship and date of execution were alike 

 unknown to them. 



An exceptionally intelligent black suggested that the strokes 

 were a record of time during which encampments had been 

 continued at the place. From their being visible upon some of 

 the larger figures they are obviously, in part at least, a later 

 addition to the picture. I have not delineated all the short 

 strokes. Those I have given show how thickly they are distri- 

 buted and their relative lengths and positions. It appeared to 

 me that some of them were intended to represent grass and 

 foliage. 



The natives who inhabited the locality were called by them- 

 selves Kuli. They were of the same stock as the Victorian 

 blacks generally, and formed part of the advance guard of the 

 Wiraidheri, who inhabited the centre and south of New South 

 Wales ; the language of the Kuli, however, was marked by more 

 numerous and distinct traces of relationship with the extinct 

 Tasmanian race. 



The principal subjects delineated are as follow : — 



1. Seven men engaged in a corroboree. 



2. An incomplete oval with a small figure like the conven- 



tional heart. 



3. A man and woman, the man's left hand holding the 



woman's I'ight. 

 I. Indistinguishable. 



