all descended from the same stock or that they evolved 

 similar customs from corresponding environment. 



There are a number of aboriginal drawings cut upon 

 some sandstone rocks at Point Piper, a low headland on 

 the western side of Rose Bay, parish of Alexandria, County 

 of Cumberland. These engravings were described, with 

 illustrations, by G. P. Angus in 1847. 1 Some of Mr. Angus's 

 drawings contain importanterrors,but they are nevertheless 

 highly interesting, because they show that although these 

 engravings have been exposed to the weather and other 

 wasting influences for 53 years, since the time of his visit, 

 they are still in an excellent state of preservation, with 

 the exception of some which have been destroyed to make 

 room for buildings now erected on the site. In the daily 

 newspapers of more than a year ago, it was stated that Mr. 

 L. Hargrave was of opinion that the above figures at Point 

 Piper were drawn by the Spaniards and that Mr. J. H. 

 Watson believed them to have been executed by convicts 

 since the British occupation of New South Wales. I beg 

 to dissent from both these views, and feel confident that 

 they were the work of the aborigines. 



My reason for arriving at this conclusion is because of 

 the vast number of similar drawings which have been 

 reported over an extensive region of New South Wales. 

 The portion of the State in which they are most numerous 

 comprises the counties of Northumberland, Hunter, Cook, 

 Cumberland, Westmoreland, Camden and Vincent. Mr. 

 W. D. Campbell was employed by the Government of New 

 South Wales to copy for publication a great many of these 

 specimens of aboriginal art." I have myself copied and 

 illustrated upwards of two hundred and fifty native draw- 



1 Savage Life in Australia and New Zealand, (London 1847) vol. 11, 

 p. l'7.->, plates 1 and 2. 



2 Aboriginal Carvings of Port Jackson and Broken Bay, pp. 1 -73, 29 





