HORN EXPEDITION — NARRATIVE. ^7 



Tlie next day wc spent (|uict.ly in the neighl:)Ourliootl of the rock. Seen from 

 the distance it looks like a great solid mass, Ijut when close to it there are found 

 to be a mimher of huge, blutF-like masses which stand out each with its sniuotii, 

 rounded summit melting above into the main central mass. The weathering has 

 made the surface curiously smooth. The rock peels ofl' in thin Hakes, but at the 

 same time weathering on a larger scale is taking place. Close to our camp was a 

 great curved column (shown in the accompanying illustration) two hundred feet 

 high and eight feet wide, separating od' from the surface the contour of which it 

 followed. Except at its upper and lower ends it was quite free from the rock and 

 looked liki.^ a huge Hying buttress. In course of time it would slip down and 

 break up into big masses like tho.se which were everywhere lying round about 

 the base of the mountain. 



In parts also the face had weathered so as to produce a curious netted or curtain 

 appearance due to the presence of a network of more resistent material in the 

 arko.se sandstone of which the rock is formed. Small caves were plentiful in parts 

 and the walls of these had been ornamented by the natives with drawings of hands 

 and human faces and various animals. Some of the latter such as those of snakes 

 and dingoes were recognisable, whilst others were apparently only conventional 

 patterns, such as intertwined or continuous curves not without artistic feeling and 

 suggesting the rudiments of designs which ujight in course of time become 

 developed into elaborate, interlaced ornamc^itations. The colours were the usual 

 red, yellow, black and white, and nowhere did we see any trace of blue such as has 

 been descriljed as occurring in native drawings from further north. 



After spending the morning in wandering round the rock, phuttigraphing it 

 and copying many of the drawings, a number of which aie reproduced in the 

 Anthropology report, we went out into the Mulga scrub in search of honey ants. 

 Evidently this is a favourite hunting ground of the blacks, as the scrub was in 

 parts thick with mounds of earth which tli(;y had thrown up when digging out the 

 nests. A native woman armed only with a yam stick will dig down to a depth of 

 a few feet in a surprisingly short space of time, bi'eaking up the earth with the 

 stick held in the right hand while in the left a small pitchi is held and used as a 

 shovel to clear the loosened earth away. 



The honey ant nest is not indicated on tlie surface by any mound. There is 

 simply a hole perhaps an inch or more in length, and from this the central burrow 

 which is about three-quarters of an inch in diameter runs down vertically with 

 horizontal passages leading oti' at intervals after a depth of perhaps two feet has 

 been reached. In the nest which we dug up during that afternoon, a few honey 



