whose recent fire places appeared on the projecting area of the cave.

Many turtles' heads were placed on the shelves or niches of the
excavation, amply demonstrative of the luxurious and profuse mode of life
these outcasts of society had, at a period rather recently, followed. The
roof and sides of this snug retreat were also entirely covered with the
uncouth figures I have already described.

As this is the first specimen of Australian taste in the fine arts that
we have detected in these voyages it became me to make a particular
observation thereon: Captain Flinders had discovered figures on Chasm
Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, formed with a burnt stick; but this
performance, exceeding a hundred and fifty figures, which must have
occupied much time, appears at least to be one step nearer refinement
than those simply executed with a piece of charred wood. Immediately
above this schistose is a superincumbent mass of sandstone which appeared
to form the upper structure of the island.

(*Footnote. King's Australia volume 2 page 25.)

...

PAINTINGS IN THE YORK DISTRICT.

There is a third instance of a cave with a figure in it in the district
of York, in the settlement of Swan River; but in this case the species of
circle which is drawn on the cave, or rather scraped into it with a piece
of stone, may represent anything or nothing; in fact it is no more than
any idle or thoughtless savage might have executed, without any fixed
design whatever. The only other vestige of drawing contained in the cave
is evidently the mere impression of a hand, which has been rubbed over
with the red paint with which the natives are in the constant habit of
bedaubing themselves, and has then been pressed in on the wall.

NATIVE TRADITIONS.

I had been told that the natives had some very curious traditions current
amongst them with regard to this last cave and, after having visited it
and satisfied myself that there was no analogy between it and the caves
on the north-west continent of Australia, I set about collecting some of
the native stories that related to it. These legends nearly all agreed in
one point, that originally the moon, who was a man, had lived there; but
beyond this there was nothing common to them all, for every narrator
indulged his own powers of invention to the greatest possible degree,
scarcely ever relating the same story twice, but on each occasion
inventing a new tradition; and the amount of marvels and