146 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



the same, or a different colour. See Plate XIX , four. Roy. Soc. 

 MS. IV., Vol. XXVII. 



I have visited between fifty and sixty rock shelters containing 

 native drawings, and only in a few of them have I found yellow 

 colour employed, and then only for some small figures. The 

 reason for this is that yellow clays are not plentiful. Blue 

 colour is still scarcer, and I have only observed its use in one 

 cave. 



Vegetable colours were also known to the aborigines. E. 

 Stephens says they painted red bands on their shields by 

 means of the juice of a small tuber, which grew in abundance 

 in the bush.— /w/r. Roy. Soc. N.S.W., XXIII., p. 487. The 

 apple tree, and also the grass tree, of Australia, yield a red gum 

 or resin, which has the property of staining anything a red 

 colour. 



Rock Carvings. 



Whilst I was engaged in visiting a group of native carvings on 

 a tributary of Broken Bay, I came upon some which had been 

 partially carried out and then abandoned, which disclosed to me 

 the method the native artist employed in producing the work. 

 A number of holes were first made close together along the out- 

 line of tlie figure to be drawn, and these were afterwards con- 

 nected by cutting out the intervening spaces, thus making a con- 

 tinuous groove. It is pi'obable that the object was first outlined 

 by drawing a piece of coloured stone or hard pebble along the 

 line to be cut out. Judging by the punctured indentations made 

 in the rock in cutting out the lines of these figures, I conclude 

 that the natives used a hard pebble ground to a point, and used 

 as a chisel. As soon as the outline of the figure was chiselled 

 out to the required depth, I think the remainder of the work was 

 done with a stone tomahawk. I am led to this conclusion 

 because the sides of the groo\e are cut more evenly than could 

 have been done with such an instrument as the holes wei"e 

 punctured with ; and there is no doubt the work could thus be 

 done with greater expedition. From the smoothness of the edges 

 of these grooves in a few of the best executed figures, I am 

 inclined to believe that, after the chopping out was finished, the 

 edges were ground down by rubbing a stone along them. fn 



