PRESIDENT S ADDRESS SECTION F. 
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colony of Victoria, and in caves near Fork, in W est Australia. 
Mr. Mathews, a licensed surveyor of New South Wales, writes 
to me that he has received the medal of the Royal Society of 
New South Wales for his interesting papers read before that Society, 
describing fifty caves and their paintings, and forty carvings on sand- 
stone rocks in that colony. The Palaeontologist of the Australian 
Museum in Sydney (Mr. R. Etheridge, junr.) has also described, in 
the transactions of the Linneau Society of New South Wales, several 
very interesting and remarkable discoveries of rock shelters and 
caves in New South Wales, containing paintings and carvings of the 
native races. 
The Ooraminna rockhole, on the overland telegraph line from 
Adelaide to Port Darwin, is one of the grandest rock waterholes on 
that line. This waterhole is in a small watercourse running down 
between the ranges. Where the hole is situated there is a waterfall 
having a drop of about 15 feet. The hole is almost round, and about 
25 feet in diameter. Above the highest watermark there are several 
caves at the back, just under where the water falls, which have been 
profusely decorated by the natives. The principal drawings comprise 
sketches of emus* feet, human hands and feet, lizards, snakes, and 
scores of other mythical drawings. Close to, and, in fact, abutting on 
the rockhole itself are several other caves adorned similarly ; one of 
them is, however, diapered all over with the design shown in Plate II. 
This diaper work covers a wall face of about 12 feet high by 10 feet 
wide, and is painted on a white ground with a red pigment. Access to 
this cave can only be obtained by passing behind the curtain of falling 
water ; whilst medallions of the form shown at the bottom of the 
diaper also appear on the rock face. The red hand has attracted 
great attention, as the natives when questioned on the subject either 
declare their entire ignorance of the reason of its exhibition, or shake 
their heads, and, putting on an air of mystery, refuse to explain or 
satisfy the questioner, it will be observed that the hand is always in 
an uplifted position, never horizontal or having a downward tendency. 
At a place near Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), on the rocks at 
Kangaroo Point, 30 feet above the present surface, are a whole series 
of hands painted in red still clearly visible. The number of hands 
depicted at this place is thirteen. The red hand is to be met with in 
almost all countries of the world — in Egypt, the Holy Land, Arabia, 
India, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and amongst the ruins of Mexico and 
Central America. On the Parramatta River there is a rock with seven 
of these hands depicted on it, but the most prolific place for them is 
Cox’s Creek, near the head of the Cudgegong River. Whatever the 
pigment used may have been, it has so preserved the rock on which 
it has been painted, that the weather has had no effect on it, and the 
drawings stand out in relief from the other portions of the rock face. 
On the Hunter River are caves with representations of twelve hands in a 
row. All of these, with one exception, are those of the left hand. On 
the Natal Downs the natives have made drawings in the sandstone 
caves of emus, kangaroos, aud the red hand. These latter are found 
on the almost inaccessible cliffs. On the Cape River are also a 
number of red hands. Indeed, wherever there are native paintings, 
there also will be found, with few exceptions, representations of the 
human hand. 
