295 



parallel with the most easterly one, and about a chain and a-half 

 further to the east of it, I discovered a fine series of rock paint- 

 ings. I copied them carefully, as they are the best met with so 

 far. In front of the painted escarpment the ground is flat, with 

 a very moderate rise in a northerly direction, extending thence 

 for about five hundred yards, where it meets an almost vertical 

 face of rock some twenty feet high. From here the ridge bifur- 

 cated through a fault in the foi'mation, and in this way these 

 parallel escarpments near the southern end of the ridge had been 

 formed. The protected area thus formed makes an admirable 

 camping ground. There was a rock-hole containing water at the 

 the southernmost end of the western branch of th*e ridge opposite 

 the rock paintings. This hole has evidently often been visited by 

 aborigines for the purpose of grinding food or making imple- 

 ments, because a number of depressions were seen round it in the 

 fine but hard sandstone, which were no doulit caused by friction 

 of the hand. 



\Qtli June. — Reached the salt lake, which Billy called " punn- 

 dee." In several places over the surface of this dry lake, holes 

 had been dug by natives, evidently for the purpose of obtaining 

 gypsum, of which a layer of large and small crystallised pieces 

 was found a few inches below the surface. 



18</t June. — Some blackfellows' camps lately occupied were seen 

 close to the hill. 



21.s"< June. — I went to the hill two miles north of the camp. 

 This is an almost solid mass of granite with rocks scattered about 

 it, and occasionally eroded layers, that have formed rock-shelters. 

 In one of these I found a recently extinguished fire, proving its 

 recent occupation by a native. 



227i(i June. — We saw several newly made traps for game as we 

 rode round some of the granite hills. These traps consist of a 

 hole in the ground cut down about five feet perpendicularly and 

 fifteen inches by two feet six inches wide. They are sufficiently 

 covered by brushwood to hide the excavation. From each side of 

 this a slightly curved brushwood fence extends to about thirty or 

 forty feet, so that an almost right angle is formed at the, hole. 

 In front of the hole a stone about ten inches long and three to 

 four inches thick is placed, and from point to point of the brush 

 fences are laid a couple of pieces of wood. The stone seems so 

 placed either to divert the attention of the game away from the 

 hole, or to induce them to hop over it and plunge into the trap, 

 whilst the wood laid across the fences will prevent their jumping 

 sideways at that point when driven to it. Very likely these traps 

 are self-acting and used by driving the game into them ; in any 

 case the animals would keep along the fences and be sure to get 

 caught in a*hole at the apex. Several old wurlies and fences had 



