98 ROCK CABVING BY THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES, ETC. 



of years. The position of the right leg, and general style of 

 the drawing (see Plate VIII.) shows that the artist had evidently 

 taken notice of European pictures, which he had no doubt seen 

 in the huts of the white settlers. 



The carving is evidently intended to represent a white 

 man going into the bush to cut timber, carrying his axe over his 

 shoulder. He has only his shirt and trousers on — the latter 

 being turned up at the bottoms, a common practice among 

 bushmen. He is wearing what appears to be a " cabbage-tree" 

 hat, an article very much worn by early colonists. The shape 

 of the axe shows that it also belongs to the same period, before 

 American axes were introduced. 



The outline of the figure is defined by means of a continuous 

 groove cut into the rock in the manner described by me in other 

 papers,* but in the present instance an iron tomahawk has 

 apparently been used in doing the work. It is well-known that 

 blackfellows invariably throw away their rude stone implements 

 of all kinds as soon as they get the more perfect tools of the 

 white man. 



The height of the man, from the top of his head to the 

 soles of his feet, is five feet seven inches and a-half. The axe- 

 head is nine inches long, and three inches across the head, with 

 a handle twenty-one inches long. This carving is on a large 

 flat mass of Hawkesbury Sandstone, level with the surface of 

 the ground, within Portion No. 146 of 79f acres, in the parish 

 of Wilberforce, county of Cook. The figure is close to the 

 western side of a road reserved through the Portion mentioned ; 

 and may also be described as being a few chains in a north- 

 westerly direction from the north-east corner of Portion No. 14 

 of 40 acres, in the same parish and county. 



As this is the only instance of which I am aware where a 

 blackfellow has been seen in the act of carving these figures on 

 rocks, I have thought the matter of sufficient importance to bring 

 it before this Society. Assertions have beeu made thatcarvingg 

 found on rocks in New South Wales have been executed at a 

 comparatively remote period, but I have always opposed this 

 view, ! and am glad to be able to bring forward evidence of the 

 existence of the practice within the last half century. 



* Jour. Anthrop. Inst., XXV., 149-150. 



i Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. Aust., Qd., X., 56-57. 



