Aboriginal Rock Paintings ajid Carvings. 155 



in the Parish of ISTarrabeen, County of Cumberland. It is 42 feet 6 

 inches long, and upwards of 12 feet across the widest part of the 

 body, not including the fins. The mouth is open, the upper jaw 

 being 2 feet 7 inches long, and the lower 2 feet. Both eyes are 

 shown on the same side of the head— a common practice among 

 the blacks when drawing representations of fish. This fish has a 

 pectoral, a ventral, and two dorsal fins. Sir Charles Nicholson 

 describes a carving of a large fish at Middle Head, Port Jackson, 

 which was "upwards of 30 feet long." — Anth. Jour., IX., p. 31. 

 In the Records of the Geological Survey of N.S. JV., Vol. II., 

 p. 178, Mr. Etheridge describes a large fish 31 feet 9 inches long, 

 carved on a flat rock, near Manly, not far from Sydney. The 

 carving which I have shown in Fig. 15, is, therefoi-e, 10 feet 

 9 inches longer than any drawing of a fish hithertjo recorded. 



It is not improbable that this large fish was intended for the 

 porpoise, which was venerated all along the eastern coast from 

 Gippsland to Newcastle. It was a common practice with the 

 aborigines to draw on a large scale any animal they wished to 

 honour. On one of their Bora grounds I found a horizontal 

 figure of Baiamai, 20 feet long, formed of raised earth on the 

 surface of the ground. 



General. 



All the figures shown on the plates are drawn to scale, 

 and are accurately reproduced from measurements taken by me 

 with a tape measure in every instance ; the directions which 

 the shelters face were taken with a pocket compass. The 

 position of each painting and carving on the Government maps 

 is also given, so that they can be found by anyone wishing to 

 see them. 



In the newspaper report of the expedition fitted out by Mr. 

 W. A. Horn, for the scientific exploration of the McDonnell 

 Ranges in Central Australia, it has amongst its objects — " the 

 reproduction by photography of aboriginal paintings in caves and 

 on rocks." 



Rock paintings by the aborigines have been observed from the 

 time of the earliest explorers, and are universally distTi'ibuted 

 over Australia, having been noticed in all the colonies at places 

 far apart, but there has, hitherto, been very little attention paid 

 to them. These paintings have frequently been seen in different 



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