258 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



Remembering the fervid praises of the treasures by 

 those who had not seen them, a sense of disappointment 

 when they came to be examined was inevitable. They are 

 not to be classed in any standard beyond that displayed on 

 early school-slates ; but imperfect as they are, they possess 

 a certain symmetry and proportion, and the facts that they 

 are where they are, and that the artist — dead and forgotten 

 — had no light or leading, and was in other respects prob- 

 ably one of the most rude, most uncouth of human beings, 

 are sufficient to lend to the drawings an interest as absorb- 

 ing (though of a nature quite apart) as that with which the 

 average individual contemplates the stiff works of masters 

 of Continental fame. 



One able critic of aboriginal art refers to similar rock 

 paintings as frescoes, for lack of a significant title. Appar- 

 ently the rock surface was slightly s^noothed where in- 

 equalities existed — in one case the design follows the ridges 

 and hollows — the subjects being worked in in dry earth of 

 a chalky nature, dull red in colour. Animated nature and 

 still life have been studied and reproduced. The turtle is 

 true, and the most conspicuous and sharply-defined study 

 the least convincing. It resembles those fantastic inter- 

 woven shapes that some men in fits of abstraction or idle- 

 ness sketch on their own blotting-pads, and which signify 

 nothing. 



Comparing the works of the two studios, there is little 

 doubt that there were at least two artists native of Dunk 

 Island in times past, and in that respect the island was 

 infinitely superior to its present state. Each appears to 

 have effected a different kind of work — one devoting him- 

 self to realistic reptiles and the human form debased, and 

 the other almost solely to the creation of conventional 

 designs, and the representation of the animals and of 

 weapons of his age. One illustrated man, and even gave 

 to one of his reptiles a semi-human shape ; the other 

 exercised an exuberant fancy for ornamentation. Each 

 bequeathed to the present day and generation works that 

 are at least free from the subtleties of art. 



