96 ON ABORIGINAL CAVE-DRAWINGS, ETC. 



No. 12 is painted in red, on an upright wall. The human 

 figure is one of a rather numerous series, with upturned legs. 

 What distinguishes this figure from the rest is that the head ia 

 covered with an unmistakeable hat — a circumstance which may 

 be accepted as proof that the drawing was made subsequent to 

 the European occupation of the district. As for the upturned 

 legs, possibly the artist had seen the performance of some pro- 

 fessional contortionist in Cooktown or Maytown. 



No. 13 is painted in red, on a vertical wall. Peter called 

 it a "native cat," founding his view evidently on the white spots 

 with which the lower half of the body, and the head, ears and 

 legs are liberally decorated. It is an undoubted marsupial, but 

 appears to be too heavily built for a native cat. I have my 

 doubts regarding Peter's ability as an art critic, though I have a 

 high regard for him as an active and intelligent member of the 

 Mounted Constabulary. 



No. 14 is also painted in red, alongside of No. 13. The 

 figure is imperfect, having been encroached on by the growth of 

 a lichen, which has left a mere undecipherable trace of a pros- 

 trate figure beneath. It is a female figure depicted in the act of 

 falling to the ground. A more than usually earnest attempt haa 

 been made to depict the human contour. From the shape of 

 the head and the " coming-down " of the hair, we may venture 

 to guess that the subject was a white woman. 



Some pictures of shields occur in the Mun Gin caves, but 

 as a rule they are so badly drawn and so imperfectly preserved 

 that they seemed unworthy of reproduction. Their general 

 type may be described as that of a boomerang straightened out, 

 and with a line drawn along the middle. 



The two last drawings of the series (Nos. 14 and 15) are 

 taken from a number of figures drawn on the underside of what 

 may be called a " loggan-stone," at the head of a branch of 

 Marshall's Creek, a tributary of the Mossman. The stone, 

 about the size of a Pullman palace car, is all that remains of a 

 thick bed of Desert Sandstone, and rests by a narrow point on 

 the underlying bed of sandstone. The under surface of the 

 stone (8ft. above the floor) has been selected for decoration with 

 drawings, which, however, are mostly a good deal weathered. 

 The two birds are evidently the same. Their general contour 



