150 TlMEHRl. 



Here a Brazilian settler and his family lived on the 

 site of the old mission station, and of the new one that 

 is to be, for whose formation the Rev. Mr. Quick, who 

 had travelled down from Ichowrah, was making arrange- 

 ments during the time of our visit. 



At Warraputa, the river is impeded by immense 

 bars and dykes of granite and greenstone, and it 

 widens out over an extensive area, split up into 

 small channels between the numerous rocky islets. 

 Along the channel by the eastern bank, and about two 

 miles above the settlement, are situated the curious 

 "Timehri" or rock inscriptions. These interesting 

 remains are being rapidly destroyed by the disintegra- 

 tion of the rocks on which they are found. In many 

 places the inscriptions are already obliterated, and it is 

 impossible to declare what was the original pattern from 

 the one or two lines or curves existing. Many of the 

 huge blocks on which the "Timehri" are most distinctly 

 seen, have been split up by the agencies of heat and 

 moisture, and parts of one and the same inscription are 

 to be found on the adjacent parts of the blocks. 



They evidently were of considerable depth originally ; 

 and indications of this are to be found in one or two 

 places where the ridge between any two lines of the 

 inscriptions is considerably higher than the generality 

 of the others. When one takes into account the extra- 

 ordinarily active denudation to which these rocks are 

 alternately subjected, at one season exposed to the 

 action of aerial, and at the other to aquatic forces — for 

 they are submerged when the water is high — one 

 cannot but realise that these inscriptions, if they be 

 at all ancient, must have been of at least some inches in 



