494 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION PF. 
Captain P. King’s Survey of the Coasts of Australia (1818- 
1822), pages 25-26. He says:—‘ As this is the first speci- 
men of Australian taste in the fine arts that we have de 
tected in these voyages, it became me to make a particular 
observation thereon. Captain Flinders had _ discovered 
figures on Chasm Island, in the Gulf of Carpetaria, formed 
with a burnt stick; but this performance, exceeding a 
hundred and fifty figures, which must have occupied much 
time, appears at least to be one step nearer refinement than 
those simply executed with a piece of charred wood.” Some 
78 years later—in 1899—during the course of a mission from 
the Government to present the coastal blacks with certain 
gifts, in return for rendering assistance to the pearling crews 
shipwrecked in the terrible cyclone at Bathurst Bay, I took 
the opportunity of visiting this out-of-the-way island. The 
figures represented, and corresponding with Captain King’s 
description above quoted, are: —Turtles (Pl. XIV., 1, 2, 3); 
lizards (Pl. XIV., 12); trepang (Pl. XIV., 11); sharks open- 
mouthed (Pl. XIV., 4, 5, 6)—a very common pattern; and 
porpoises (Pl. XIV., 13, 14). Starfish, clubs, canoes, water- 
gourds, and “ some’ quadrupeds were not seen by me. The 
fact of water-gourds being depicted here originally is very 
likely, because, even at the present day, it is a common 
practice for the aboriginals along this coast-line to carry 
fresh water in these vessels when going over in their canoes 
to visit the outlying reefs and islands. Remaining objects 
not mentioned by Captain King comprise harpoons (PI. 
XIV., 8), fish (Pl. XIV., 15), dugong (Pl. XIV., 7), and 
hands (Pl. XIV., 9-10)—the latter drawn independently of 
any tracing. The interpretations of the figures quoted were 
all based on the opinions of the aboriginals who accompanied 
nie. 
In the close neighbourhood of Cooktown, several drawings 
are to be met with in the shelter-caves on the northern 
aspect of Mount Cook. Plate XV., from a photograph by _ 
Mr. A. Dean, shows an example of these. According to 
local blacks, the three right-hand (charcoal) figures repre- 
sent men; the two remaining objects are.said to be croco- 
diles, notwithstanding that one of these is minus a tail. 
Both the latter (one in charcoal, the other in yellow pig- 
ment) are peculiar in that they have been “finished off ” 
with a thick white line all the way round. Among the 
rocks scattered about here are also to be seen life-size repre- 
sentations of the left hand; the white paint has either been 
sluiced over the hand held close to the rock, so as to leave a 
silhouette when it has been removed, or else painted close 
