BY FRITZ NOETLING, M.A., PH.D., ETC. 45 



under the guidance of a man who knew Stocker's 

 Bottom well, who had kindly been placed at my disposal 

 by Mr. Eustace Cameron, of Mona Vale, to hunt up the 

 native quarry at Stocker's Bottom. It was a long and 

 tedious ride ; but we found the stone hut right enough. 

 " Ten chains immediately in front and to the north- 

 east " we went, but there was not a sign of an outcrop 

 of chert or any suitable rock, not to say of a native 

 quarry. There was only black alluvial soil. We went 

 further — 20, 30 chains, half-a-mile — no sign of a quarry. 

 We went in a wide circle round the hut ; nowhere the 

 slightest indication of even a small fragment of chert or 

 a native implement. This careful examination of the 

 locality which Mr. Vere Poullet-Harris and myself 

 made, with the assistance of a man who knew almost 

 every inch of ground, has conclusively proved that the 

 native quarry near the stone hut in Stocker's Bottom 

 is a myth. We then set out to hunt for the second 

 locality, but, except a few pieces of dark chert on the 

 slope of a low hill, I found nothing, and it seems pretty 

 certain that there is no quarry at the place described by 

 Scott. 



It then struck me that another interpretation might 

 be given to Scott's statement. Can it be that he dis- 

 covered some outcrops of chert, and that he only wanted 

 to say that he discovered two localities where rock suit- 

 able for the manufacture of Aboriginal implements oc- 

 curs, leaving it an open question whether the Aborigines 

 did exploit that locality or not ? This view would in some 

 way account for this otherwise inexplicable statement. 

 However that may be, it is certain that there exists no 

 native quarry in Stocker's Bottom, and this locality 

 must therefore be struck ofT the list of places whence 

 the Aborigines obtained the material for the manufac- 

 ture of their implements. 



Though disappointed in Stocker's Bottom, I had the 

 good luck to hear of another native quarry which had 

 been discovered by Mr. George Hutchison, of Beaufront, 

 on Syndal Estate. Mr. Hutchison kindly showed me 

 the place, and I feel greatly indebted to him, because 

 it is doubtful whether I would have found this rather 

 remote locality without his guidance. We proceeded 

 from the road that leads from Ross to Trefusis in 

 an eastern direction along the wire-netted boundary 



