ROCK PAINTINGS AND CARTINGS OF THE ABORIGINES. 
627 
people. Judging by the comparative freshness of some of the rock 
carvings, I am not disposed to attribute any great antiquity to them. 
I think it is highly probable that many of these native drawings 
are a rude kind of picture-writing, but, as our present collection of 
data is very limited, it will be better not to advance any theories until 
a very much larger and more varied number of paintings and carvings 
can be copied and described. 
Jt is evident that these native drawings will become fainter and 
fewer year by year ; hence it is very desirable that those who have 
opportunities, and are willing to give us the results of their investiga- 
tions, should be encouraged by all learned Societies to copy and 
preserve these records of a people who are rapidly disappearing before 
the white race. 
Plate I.— ROCK PAINTINGS. 
By IF. J. ENRIGHT, B.A. 
In October, 1893, I happened to see in the newspapers the report 
of a paper entitled “ Rock Paintings by the Aborigines in Caves on 
Bulgar Creek, near Singleton,” which was read by Mr. R. H. Mathews 
before the Royal Society of New South Wales. This paper had the 
effect of awakening my interest in this subject, and a friend put me 
in communication with the author, who kindly sent me a copy of his 
paper, which was illustrated by plates, showing the paintings ho 
described.* I then commenced to study aboriginal drawings; and 
having been informed that there were several of them in the Wollombi 
district, I determined to visit that locality immediately I had the time 
at my disposal. I am glad to say that 1 have been able to make two 
or three excursions through the country indicated, with the satisfactory 
result that I have prepared a paper in which are described nine groups 
of paintings, which will, I trust, be found interesting to the members 
of this Association. My colleague, Mr. Mathews, has undertaken 
the preparation of a plate of rock carvings, with descriptions of the 
various figures he has visited and copied ; so that I shall leave that part 
of the subject to be dealt with by him. 
Pig. 1. — The cave in which these drawings were found is situated in 
a cliff of Hawkesbury Sandstone on the right hank of Bally’s Arm, a 
tributary of Cedar Creek, and about 25 chains westerly from the north- 
west corner of Portion No. 6, of 40 acres, in the parish of Millfield, 
county of Northumberland. 
The length of the cave is 46 feet, height about 12 feet, and depth 
20 feet. The front of the shelter faces N. 20° YV\,and the floor, which 
slopes to the edge of the cliff, is covered in places with one foot depth 
of sand derived from the disintegration of the rock, which is very fine- 
grained ; there are also charred sticks, a great quantity of cinders, and 
shells of the fresh-water Unio lying about, together with flakes of 
smoke-blackened stone which have dropped from the roof, where slight 
traces of the smoke are still be be seen. 
There are nineteen figures drawn in solid black, and they consist 
of a large fish surrouuding the small figure of a man, and with the 
beak of a seagull in its mouth; a laughing jackass; a figure of a 
* Journ. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, vol. xxvii., pp. 353-8, Plates xviii.-xx 
