214 



R. H. MATHEWS. 



in diameter, and its depth 

 eighteen inches. A few 

 yards down the bed of this 

 gully is a small waterhole, 

 which appears to contain a 

 permanent supply of water, 

 being fed by a small spring 

 oozing out of the bank. 

 About one hundred and 

 fifty yards westerly from 

 these ovens is a piece of 

 level ground, surrounded 

 by ridges which shelter it 

 from storms, and which 

 would have been a very 

 eligible site for a camping 

 ground for the aborigines 

 in olden times. The soil in 

 this locality is sandy, and 

 therefore not so suitable for making holes in it for cooking game 

 as if it were clayey, which latter would hold the heat better. This 

 would be an additional inducement for the natives to select holes 

 in rocks for this purpose. 



Close to the pot-holes, or ovens, are several figures carved upon 

 the surface of the same large rock, one of which represents the 

 forepart of a kangaroo or wallaby, the remainder of the animal's 

 outline having weathered away beyond restoration. The other 

 figures consist of grotesque forms more or less human in shape, 

 one of which appears to have been intended for some mythologic 

 creature, the type of which does not exist in nature. The carvings 

 are shown as Figs. 19, 20, 21, and 30 of Plate ii., in a paper con- 

 tributed by me to the Anthropological Society at Washington in 

 1895. 1 



1 American Anthropologist, viii., pp. 268 - 278. 



