BY FRITZ NOETLING, M.A., PH.D., ETC, 39 



exist, the traces left behind must be very fragmentary. 

 It is evident that the wooden superstructure described 

 by Peron cannot have stood for any length of time. It 

 is 'equally certain that the grass covering soon rotted 

 away; in fact, the second grave mentioned by Peron 

 seems to have been in this dilapidated condition, and 

 the first one, so minutely described, must have been of 

 very recent origin. We can safely assume that after a 

 few years nothing remained of the rather elaborate 

 structure but a low earthy mound, in which a few stones 

 were embedded, and even these relics were very perish- 

 able. We can only regret that Peron, led away by his 

 emotions, did not make a closer examination of the two 

 localities where he discovered the graves ; if he had, t'he 

 question whether the Aborigines used regular burial 

 grounds or not would have been settled. Had he seen 

 such little mounds of earth covered with a few stones, 

 there could have been no further doubt that this place 

 had been used as a regular burial ground. 



A discovery which I lately made on Charlton estate, 

 near Ross, seems to settle this question in favour of the 

 existence of a regular burial ground. Mr. E. Cameron, 

 of Mona Vale, informed me that a so-called native burial 

 ground existed quite close to Charlton house. Following 

 tlie fence behind the house in an eastern direction for 

 about half-a-mile, we came on a most remarkable spot. 

 The liill is apparently covered with sand, and right on 

 the top the sand has been blown out for a length of 

 about three hundred feet to a depth of over four feet. 

 The remains of the covering layer of sand can still be 

 seen towards north, and they are well marked in the 

 p'hotograpih. The hill commands a fine view all round, 

 and the photograph gives only a poor impression of the 

 large area that can be overlooked. 



On the loamy soil, about seventy to eighty little 

 mounds of earth, irregularly covered with more or less 

 rounded stones, can be seen. These mounds are about 

 three feet in diameter, and very low; in fact, most of 

 them are hardly raised above the ground. I opened 

 several of them, but, except an irregular layer of whitish 

 tenacious clay, covered by the ordinary reddish loam, 

 I found nothing. There were not the slightest traces of 

 bones. Fragments of stone implements were not un- 



