BY ROBERT L, JACK, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. 93 



legs are transfixed by or hung on two jagged spears, or, it may 

 be, one broad spear. In the latter case this is the only outline 

 drawing in the whole series. 



No. 4 is on the roof of the cave, which dips at 30 degrees, 

 and is five feet above the level of the floor. It is drawn in red 

 ochre. It represents a woman (with four fingers on each hand) 

 carrying, I believe, a baby on her neck. The pigment of the 

 burden has scaled away in places, or it has been laid on con- 

 fusedly to represent the apparent motion of a lively infant. Two 

 small arms project above the mother's head and terminate in 

 formidable clenched fists. 



Nos. 5 to 14 are from caves or cliffs protected by overhang- 

 ing rocks, on Mun Gin Creek, about 100 feet above the base of 

 the Desert Sandstone. 



No. 5 is the only one of a large series of piscatorial subjects 

 which the weather had left in sufficiently good preservation to 

 be made out. It is done in red ochre on a vertical surface. One 

 white line runs across the base, and another along the middle of 

 the head, and two round white dots on the head may be eyes. 

 It may be mentioned that white lines, such as ornament Nos. 3 

 and 5, form a notable feature of many of the aboriginal human 

 and animal drawings given by Mr. R. H. Mathews, in his paper 

 on " The Aboriginal Eock Pictures of Australia," in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Eoyal Geographical Society of Queensland, 

 vol. X., p. 46. Mr. Mathews does not explain their meaning, 

 nor can I. In the case of Mr. Mathews' drawings, I was 

 tempted to regard the lines as " directions for carving," as the 

 only parallel I can recall is in Mrs. Beaton's cookery-book, where 

 animals are mapped out so as to show the different "joints" 

 and " cuts." 



No. 6 is a very remarkable group. It is in red ochre on an 

 upright wall of sandstone, beneath an overhanging ledge. The 

 male figure is 30 inches long. The drawing appears to me to 

 depict the domestic economy of the grazier class of the intruding 

 whites. A cow leads the way. It is in the emaciated condition 

 which I recognise too well as characteristic of the cattle running 

 on the Palmer goldfield, which is not, if the truth must be 

 told, a first-class pastoral district. The animal is followed by a 

 woman and man carrynig a log. The woman supports the 

 heavy end, of course. The aboriginal critic would have con- 



