NATURAL HISTORY.

North-Western Australia seems to be peculiarly prolific in birds, reptiles, and insects, who dwell here nearly unmolested, mutually preying upon each other, and thus, by a wise provision, setting the necessary check to their own multiplication.

DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS.

Of quadrupeds there are but few species, and of these the individuals, considered in proportion to the surface they roam over, are rare. The only species I observed during a residence of five months were four of kangaroos, namely the large Macropus giganteus ? of Shaw, two smaller kinds, one of which is the Pétrogale brachyotis of Gould, and a kangaroo rat, which last is always seen amongst the rocks on the sea coast. One species of opossum, a flying squirrel (Petaurista) two kinds of dog, of which one is new, rats, and a fieldmouse. Of these the kangaroos are alone numerous, and only in particular spots.

NEW KANGAROO.

I shot a female kangaroo of the Pétrogale brachyotis near Hanover Bay, and by the preservation of the skin and other parts enabled Mr. Gould to identify it as a new species.

This graceful little animal is excessively wild and shy in its habits, frequenting, in the daytime, the highest and most inaccessible rocks, and only descending into the valleys to feed early in the morning and late in the evening. When disturbed in the daytime amongst the roughest and most precipitous rocks, it bounds along from one to the other with the greatest apparent facility, and is so watchful and wary in its habits that it is by no means easy to get a shot at it. One very surprising thing is, how it can support the temperature to which it is exposed in the situations it always frequents amongst the burning sandstone rocks, the mercury there during the heat of the day being frequently at 136 degrees. I have never seen these animals in the plains or lowlands, and believe that they frequent mountains alone.

NEW DOMESTIC DOG.

The new species of dog differs totally from the Dingo or Canis australiensis. I never saw one nearer than from twenty to thirty yards, and was unable to procure a specimen. Its colour is the same as that of the Australian dog, in parts however having a blackish tinge. The muzzle is narrow, long, thin, and tapers much, resembling that of a greyhound, whilst in general form it approaches the English lurcher. Some of the party who went to Timor stated it to resemble precisely the Malay dog common to that island, and considered it to be of the same breed; which I think not improbable, as I cannot state that I ever saw one wild, or unless in the vicinity of natives; in company with whom they were generally observed in a domesticated state. On the other hand the Canis australiensis was common in some parts in a state of nature: of these I saw several myself and, from the descriptions given by other individuals of the party of dogs they had observed, I recognised their identity with the same species. We heard them also repeatedly howling during the night and, although they never attacked our sheep or goats, many portions of dead animals were carried off by them. I saw but two flying squirrels and know not to which species of Petaurista they are to be referred.

OTHER ANIMALS.

Both mice and rats are common, the former precisely resembling in appearance the English fieldmouse. The rats on one occasion ate up a live pet parakeet, leaving the bones gnawed and strewed about; and on another, when I had shot a crane (Ardea scolopacea) intending it for breakfast, they in the night devoured nearly the whole of it.

CHECKS ON INCREASE OF ANIMALS.

The multiplication of kangaroos, opossums, rats, etc. may be checked by various causes; but man, I imagine, is the most deadly enemy they have to contend with. The numerous remains of these animals that I have seen about the native fires attest the number destroyed. In all those caves in which I found native paintings were representations either of kangaroo hunts, or of men bringing down these animals dead on their shoulders; and many a hollow tree bore witness of its having been smoked in order to drive forth to certain death the trembling opossum or bandicoot rat which had taken refuge in it.

INFLUENCE OF MAN ON THEIR HABITS.

A convincing proof of the dread in which man is held by the various kinds of kangaroos is given by their extreme shyness. I never but on two or three occasions got within shot of the larger kangaroos as they were always so wary; and, although I at different times wounded two, I never could succeed in actually capturing either. Now, when the detached party sent forward just before we commenced our return to Hanover Bay crossed a range of mountains on which were neither traces of the natives or their fires, they found the direct reverse of this to be the case, and were all surprised at the tameness of the kangaroos compared with those they had previously seen.

In the same way, when I entered a new district, the birds merely flew up into a lofty tree without attempting to go farther away, and it was not until I had shot for a day or two in the neighbourhood of a place that the birds there became at all wild.

The native dog, doubtless being dependent for subsistence upon the game he can procure, must contribute to thin the numbers of the lesser animals, who also, together perhaps with the rapacious dog himself, frequently fall a prey to the various snakes that inhabit the country; as was evinced in the event narrated on the 16th of March of the destruction, by Mr. Lushington, of the boa with a small kangaroo compressed in its folds.

The manner, too, in which I have seen the rapacious birds of prey soar over plains where the small kangaroos abound, convinces me that they also bear their part in the destruction of this harmless race.

TRACES OF AN ANIMAL WITH A DIVIDED HOOF.

I have already alluded to the paucity of quadrupeds, both in species and in number, but I have still to record the remarkable fact of the existence in these parts of a large quadruped with a divided hoof: this animal I have never seen, but twice came upon its traces. On one occasion I followed its track for above a mile and a half, and at last altogether lost it in rocky ground. The footmarks exceeded in size those of a buffalo, and it was apparently much larger, for, where it had passed through brushwood, shrubs of considerable size in its way had been broken down and, from the openings there left, I could form some comparative estimate of its bulk. These tracks were first seen by a man of the name of Mustard, who had joined me at the Cape, and who had there been on the frontier during the Kaffir war; he told me that he had seen the spoor of a buffalo, imagining that they were here as plentiful as in Africa. I conceived at the time that he had made some mistake, and paid no attention to him until I afterwards twice saw the same traces myself.

BIRDS.

To describe the birds common to these parts requires more time than to detail the names of the few quadrupeds to be found; indeed in no other country that I have yet visited do birds so abound. Even the virgin forests of South America cannot, in my belief, boast of such numerous feathered denizens; yet I cannot, after all, assert that the number of genera and species is at all proportionate to that of individual birds. The contrary is probably the real case.

BEAUTY OF THE BIRDS.

The birds of this country possess in many instances an excessively beautiful plumage; and he alone who has traversed these wild and romantic regions, who has beheld a flock of many-coloured parakeets sweeping like a moving rainbow through the air whilst the rocks and dells resounded with their playful cries, can form any adequate idea of the scenes that there burst on the eyes of the wondering naturalist.

The beginning of the month of February, or the end of January, is the season in which the birds in these parts pair. In the beginning of March I found many nests with eggs in them; and in the end of that month eggs nearly hatched were observed in most of the nests, as well as young birds occasionally.

RAPACIOUS BIRDS.

Of rapacious birds I saw but four kinds, but these are by no means common:

The first species was a very large bird, of a dark colour (Aquila fucosa, Cuvier) in size, appearance, and flight closely resembling the golden eagle which I have often seen, and have once shot on the north-west coast of Ireland. I have approached these birds closely so closely indeed that I have on two occasions shot them, but each time they fell into a thick mangrove inlet and I was not fortunate enough to procure either of them; they appeared to me always to frequent the shores, for I never saw them further inland than a mile from the sea. The large nests Captain King mentions as having been found upon the coast I imagine must have belonged to this species.

The second species was a sort of hawk (Haliaeetus leucosternus, Gould) rather larger than the sparrow-hawk, of a light cinnamon colour, with a perfectly white head. They also frequent the shores, but I never shot one.

The third species was a Peregrine falcon (Falco melanogenys, Gould) which is nearly allied to that of Europe. I was not fortunate enough to procure a specimen of this bird.

The fourth was the Athene Boobook. Belly brown and white; wings brown, with white spots; third quill-feather, longest; legs feathered, lightish brown colour; tail brownish white, marked with transverse bars of a darker brown; eye prominent; iris blue. The only difference I could observe between the male and female is that the female is rather larger than the male, and her colours somewhat lighter. These birds inhabit the whole of that part of North-western Australia lying between the Prince Regent and Glenelg Rivers, and probably may be distributed over the greater portion of the Continent. They feed on insects, reptiles, and birds of the smaller kind. I have always found them seated in holes in the rocks, or in shady dells, and have never seen them fly in the daytime unless compelled by fear; they are very stupid when disturbed, and in flight and manner closely resemble the common English owl. I cannot however recollect having ever seen one on the wing during the night.

Upon describing the two singular birds mentioned above in Chapter 9 to Mr. Gould he informed me that they were most probably of the rare species Anas semipalmata.

REMARKABLE NEST.

I have already spoken in the 9th chapter of a very curious sort of nest which was frequently found by myself and other individuals of the party, not only along the seashore, but in some instances at a distance of six or seven miles from it. This nest, I once conceived must have belonged to the kangaroo rat I have above mentioned, until Mr. Gould, who has lately returned from Australia, informed me that it is the run or playing ground of the bird he has named Chalmydera nuchalis.

These nests were formed of dead grass, and parts of bushes, sunk a slight depth into two parallel furrows, in sandy soil, and then nicely arched above. But the most remarkable fact connected with them was that they were always full of broken shells, large heaps of which protruded from each extremity of the nest. These were invariably seashells. In one instance, in the nest most remote from the sea that we discovered, one of the men of the party found and brought to me the stone of some fruit which had evidently been rolled in the sea; these stones he found lying in a heap in the nest, and they are now in my possession.

Émus.

I have seen no Émus in North-western Australia, but on two occasions their tracks were impressed in the mud on some plains lying on the banks of Glenelg River; and Mr. Dring, of H.M.S. Beagle, informed me that, whilst that vessel was employed in the survey of Fitzroy River, about seventy miles to the southward of the former, he not only several times saw traces of them but that, on one occasion when he was in the bush, two of them passed within a few yards of him. They may, I conceive, therefore be considered as inhabitants of this part of the continent.

ALLIGATORS.

No alligators were seen by the land party in any of the rivers of North-western Australia, but the crew of the schooner saw one in Hanover Bay. I can however safely assert from my own experience that they are by no means numerous upon this coast. At the islands of Timor and Roti however they abound.

TURTLES.

Turtles were abundant on the coast, and a freshwater tortoise was found inland.

PLANTS.

Amongst the vegetable kingdom I shall only observe generally that the Calamus, or rattan, which in King’s voyage is considered to be peculiar to the primary granitic formation on the east coast, is abundant in the interior of the north-west between latitude 15 and 17 degrees south.

(Footnote. Appendix, volume 2.)

I found a dwarf cabbage-palm between 15 and 16 degrees south latitude, always in moist situations in the neighbourhood of streams, although not immediately on the banks.

Of the family of Urticeae many species of Ficus were observed.

The Banksia, common to Swan River, and bearing a yellow flower, is to be found in many of the valleys on the north-west coast; thus appearing to form an exception to Mr. Cunningham’s observation inserted in Captain King’s voyage, wherein he says:

Viewing the general distribution of Banksia, it is a singular fact in the geographical distribution of this genus that its species, which have been traced through almost every meridian of the south coast, upon the islands in Bass Strait, in Van Diemen’s Land, and widely scattered throughout the whole extent of New South Wales to the north coast, at which extreme Banksia dentata has been observed as far west as longitude 136 degrees south, should be wholly wanting on the line of the north-west coast.

(Footnote. Ibid.)

I observed a great variety of plants of the order Leguminosae.

Of the extraordinary Capparis resembling the African Adansonia I have already spoken in Chapter 6.

A species of Callitris (Pine) was common, as was the Pandanus; and the Araucaria excelsa was found on the heights, both near the sea coast and further inland.

CLIMATE. ITS HEALTHINESS.

I conceive the climate of North-western Australia to be one of the finest in the world, and my reasons for thus thinking are grounded upon the following circumstances.

PROOFS OF ITS SALUBRITY.

I was resident there from the beginning of the month of December 1837 to the middle of the month of April 1838; a period of four months and a half: and during the whole of this time the men under my command were exposed to great hardships and privations. On one occasion three of us slept in the open air without any covering or warm clothes for five successive nights, during three of which we had constant showers of heavy rain, and yet did not in any way suffer from this exposure.

Other detached parties were on various occasions subjected for a shorter period to exposure of a similar nature, and no instance occurred of any individual suffering in the least from it. One or two cases of slight diarrhoea occurred, but they could be always traced to some food that had been eaten the day before, and never were sufficiently violent to delay us for a single hour.

Whilst this perfect freedom from disease existed amongst the party they had not only to bear exposure of the nature above stated, but the provisions with which I was enabled to supply them were sometimes very insufficient for their wants. During the whole month of March and part of April their daily full allowance of food was about 1 3/4 pounds of flour, first made into dough and then baked in the form of a flat cake upon a large stone.

This low diet, at the same time that they were compelled to work very hard, naturally rendered some of them extremely weak, and several were, on our return to the coast, in a very reduced state.

I should here state that we were (perhaps fortunately) unable to carry more than one pint of brandy with us, hence no spirits were issued to the men, and the non-appearance of diseases of an inflammatory nature may perhaps in some measure be attributed to this circumstance.

The opinion of Captain Wickham, R.N. commanding H.M. ship Beagle, is perfectly in accordance with my own. He was upon the coast at the same time that we were, and in a letter to me writes thus: “Our cruise has been altogether a fortunate one, as we have been enabled to examine the whole coast from Cape Villaret to this place (Port George the Fourth) without any accident, and the climate is so good that we have had no sick.”

THERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS. RAIN AND TEMPERATURE.

I have annexed a short statement of the weather and range of the thermometer during some parts of the months of December, January, and February. It will be seen from this that the heat was on some occasions great, even as high as to 136 degrees of Fahrenheit in the sun; yet, by not exposing ourselves to its influence in the heat of the day more than we could help, we suffered no inconvenience from this circumstance: indeed in other tropical countries where the heat has not been so great I have suffered much more than I did in North-western Australia.

NUMBER OF DAYS IN WHICH RAIN FELL:

December: 6 days.
January: 19 days, namely, 12, to January 19th, 4 between 19th and 28th,
to end of month.
February: 7 days.
March: 12 days.
To 12th April: 2 days.

In January the greatest quantity of rain fell between the 15th and 30th, accompanied by storms of thunder and lightning.

In February the greatest quantity of rain fell in the commencement of the month. For several nights in the middle of February we had thunder, lightning, and strong gusts of wind, seldom accompanied by rain.

In March the greatest quantity of rain fell from the 17th to the 23rd.

The mean temperature of the different periods of the day for the month of December 1838 at Hanover Bay, determined by observations for only six successive days from the 26th to the 31st inclusive (thermometer in the shade) are as follows:

6 A..2. 9 A..3. 12 .3. 3 P..2. 6 P..8. 9 P..5.

The same for the month of January 1838, determined by observations made from the 1st to the 19th inclusive, was:

6 A..2. 9 A..3. 12 .1. 3 P..7. 6 P..7. 9 P..4.

I should observe that the mean temperature for 9 P.M. for this month is deduced from only seven days observation.

The same as the above for the month of February, taken twelve miles to the south of Hanover Bay, from the 19th to the 26th February inclusive, is as follows:

6 A..0. 9 A..0. 12 A..7. 3 P..0. 6 P..3.

ABORIGINES, THEIR HABITS AND MANNERS.

I was never fortunate enough to succeed in obtaining a friendly interview with the natives of these parts; but I have repeatedly seen them closely, was twice forced into dispute with them and, in one of these instances, into deadly conflict. My knowledge of them is chiefly drawn from what I have observed of their haunts, their painted caves, and drawings. I have moreover become acquainted with several of their weapons, some of their ordinary implements, and I took some pains to study their disposition and habits as far as I could.

In their manner of life, their roving habits, their weapons, and mode of hunting, they closely resemble the other Australian tribes with which I have since become pretty intimately acquainted; whilst in their form and appearance there is a striking difference. They are in general very tall and robust, and exhibit in their legs and arms a fine full development of muscle which is unknown to the southern races.

They wear no clothes, and their bodies are marked by scars and wales. They seem to have no regular mode of dressing their hair, this appearing to depend entirely on individual taste or caprice.

They appear to live in tribes subject, perhaps, to some individual authority; and each tribe has a sort of capital, or headquarters, where the women and children remain whilst the men, divided into small parties, hunt and shoot in different directions. The largest number we saw together amounted to nearly two hundred, women and children included.

THEIR WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS.

Their arms consist of stone-headed spears (which they throw with great strength and precision) of throwing sticks, boomerangs or kileys, clubs, and stone hatchets. The dogs they use in hunting I have already stated to be of a kind unknown in other parts of Australia, and they were never seen wild by us.

The natives manufacture their water-buckets and weapons very neatly; and make from the bark of a tree a light but strong cord. Their huts, of which I only saw those on the sea-coast, are constructed in an oval form of the boughs of trees, and are roofed with dry reeds. The diameter of one which I measured was about fourteen feet at the base.

LANGUAGE.

Their language is soft and melodious, so much so as to lead to the inference that it differs very materially, if not radically, from the more southern Australian dialects which I have since had an opportunity of enquiring into. Their gesticulation is expressive, and their bearing manly and noble. They never speared a horse or sheep belonging to us and, judging by the degree of industry shown in the execution of some of their paintings, the absence of anything offensive in the subjects delineated, and the careful finish of some articles of common use, I should infer that under proper treatment they might easily be raised very considerably in the scale of civilization.

INDIVIDUALS OF AN ALIEN WHITE RACE.

A remarkable circumstance is the presence amongst them of a race, to appearance, totally different, and almost white, who seem to exercise no small influence over the rest. I am forced to believe that the distrust evinced towards strangers arose from these persons, as in both instances, when we were attacked, the hostile party was led by one of these light-coloured men.

SIMILARITY OF CUSTOMS WITH OTHER AUSTRALIAN TRIBES.

Captain King, who had previously experienced the same feelings of ill-will in the natives of Vansittart Bay, attributed them to the periodical visits of the Malays during the season of the trepang fishery. He says:

On this beach (of Vansittart Bay) we found a broken earthen pot, which decidedly proved the fact of the Malays visiting this part of the coast, and explained the mischievous disposition of the natives.

...

I saw but three men of this fair race myself, and thought they closely resembled Malays; some of my men observed a fourth.

NATIVES AT ROEBUCK BAY.

An individual differing in appearance and colour from his aboriginal associates was also seen amongst a native tribe whilst the boats of the Beagle were surveying in Roebuck Bay, and is thus ably described by Mr. Usberne, the master of the vessel; who was in command of the boat at the time he was observed, and who thus narrates the interview:

(Footnote. Nautical Magazine for 1840 page 576.)

To prevent interruption during dinner the things were removed to the boat, and she was then shoved a few yards off the beach, and we commenced our repast.

As we took to the water they (the natives) rose and followed us close; but in the act of shoving off, the boat-hook being pointed over the bow, they one and all involuntarily stepped back a couple of paces, thinking no doubt that it was one of our spears, which to them must have appeared a formidable weapon; but, seeing no harm was intended, they remained at the water’s edge, watching us whilst at dinner.

At this time I had a good opportunity of examining them. They were about the middle age, about five feet six inches to five feet nine in height, broad shoulders, with large heads and overhanging brows; but it was not remarked that any of their teeth were wanting (as we afterwards observed in others); their legs were long and very slight, and their only covering a bit of grass suspended round the loins. There was an exception in the youngest, who appeared of an entirely different race: his skin was a copper colour, whilst the others were black; his head was not so large, and more rounded; the overhanging brow was lost; the shoulders more of a European turn, and the body and legs much better proportioned; in fact he might be considered a well-made man at our standard of figure. They were each armed with one, and some with two, spears, and pieces of stick about eight feet long and pointed at both ends. It was used after the manner of the Pacific Islanders, and the throwing-stick so much in use by the natives of the south did not appear known to them.

After talking loud, and using very extravagant gestures, without any of our party replying, the youngest threw a stone, which fell close to the boat.

...

COINCIDENCE OF CUSTOMS.

It appears to me very probable that the same dark-coloured race inhabit the whole of Northern Australia, and perhaps extend over the islands in Torres Strait.

In order to support this opinion I shall first give an extract from the journal of Dr. Duncan, from Wilsons Voyage round the World, which contains a detail of the customs of Flinders Islands and part of Northern Australia, and displays two or three remarkable customs coinciding with those observed by myself and others to exist in Northwest Australia:

At 8 hours 40 minutes P.M. the colonial brig Mary arrived, bringing along with her a native of India, whom she picked up on one of Flinders Islands.

On the 18th July the Lascar came on board the Success, and from him I learned the following particulars: That he belonged to the ship Fame, which was wrecked in the Straits; that he and a few others escaped in a leaky boat after rowing for forty-eight hours. On landing the natives stripped them of their clothes, etc., but otherwise behaved very kindly to them. His companions in misfortune died the first year of his residence amongst the natives, which in all amounted, he said, to six or seven years.

The men in that part of Australia have from five to ten wives, of whom they are rather jealous at times. The tribes are continually at war with one another, and have regular pitched battles; but the moment that one is killed on either side, the battle ceases, until they carry off their dead, and mourn for certain days, according to their custom; bedaubing themselves over with black earth, and on another day the fight begins and ends in a similar way.

...

DISPOSAL OF THEIR DEAD.

This is singularly analogous to what occurred on our encounter with them on the 11th February. Dr. Duncan continues:

When one dies or is killed they bury the body in the earth, but at the end of five days dig it up again and wrap up the bones, etc., in bark of trees, and carry them along with them. When the women fight, which is very often, they use a short kind of club. The natives paint their bodies over with red clay to prevent the mosquitoes from biting them. When they paint their bodies white it is a sign of war with some other tribe.

...

A very remarkable instance of coincidence in this custom with regard to the dead will be found in a subjoined extract from a letter sent to me by an officer of the Beagle, together with a skeleton which he had found at Cygnet Bay. The skeleton has been presented to the Royal College of Surgeons:

The skeleton was found enveloped in three pieces of papyrus bark, on a small sandy point in Cygnet Bay. All the bones were closely packed together, and the head surmounted the whole. It did not appear to have been long interred. They had evidently been packed with care. All the long bones were undermost, and the small ones were strewed in among them. The head was resting on its base, face across.

Three natives were close to the place when we first landed: the eldest of the party went up to the spot immediately after I had removed the bones; he turned up the bark with his foot, and did not appear to show the slightest symptom of uneasiness. They were for some days among the watering party on very friendly terms.

...

CAVES. DRAWINGS. TOMBS.

As I never, during my subsequent travels in Australia, saw anything at all resembling the painted caves which I have described in the ninth chapter, I shall here add some observations on the subject, which I could not have there detailed without too great an interruption to the narrative.

Two other instances of Australian caves which contain paintings have been recorded. The first is by Captain Flinders and the second by Mr. Cunningham in King’s voyage.

PAINTINGS AT CHASM ISLAND.

The caves found by Flinders were in Chasm Island, in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and are thus described:

In the steep sides of the chasms were deep holes or caverns undermining the cliffs; upon the walls of which I found rude drawings, made with charcoal, and something like red paint, upon the white ground of the rock. These drawings represented porpoises, turtles, kangaroos, and a human hand; and Mr. Westall, who went afterwards to see them, found the representation of a kangaroo, with a file of thirty-two persons following after it. The third person of the band was twice the height of the others, and held in his hand something resembling the waddy or wooden sword of the natives of Port Jackson.

(Footnote. Flinders’ Voyages volume 2 page 158.)

...

PAINTINGS AT CLACK’S ISLAND.

(Footnote. North-east coast of Australia.)

The second instance is taken from Mr. Cunningham’s manuscripts and is contained in the following extract:

The south and south-eastern extremes of Clack’s Island presented a steep, rocky bluff, thinly covered with small trees. I ascended the steep head, which rose to an elevation of a hundred and eighty feet above the sea.

The remarkable structure of the geological features of this islet led me to examine the south-east part, which was the most exposed to the weather, and where the disposition of the strata was of course more plainly developed. The base is a coarse, granular, siliceous sandstone, in which large pebbles of quartz and jasper are imbedded: this stratum continues for sixteen to twenty feet above the water: for the next ten feet there is a horizontal stratum of black schistose rock which was of so soft a consistence that the weather had excavated several tiers of galleries; upon the roof and sides of which some curious drawings were observed, which deserve to be particularly described. They were executed on a ground of red ochre (rubbed on the black schistus) and were delineated by dots of a white argillaceous earth, which had been worked up into a paste. They represented tolerable figures of sharks, porpoises, turtles, lizards (of which I saw several small ones among the rocks) trepang, starfish, clubs, canoes, water gourds, and some quadrupeds, which were probably intended to represent kangaroos and dogs. The figures, besides being outlined by the dots, were decorated all over with the same pigment in dotted transverse belts. Tracing a gallery round to windward, it brought me to a commodious cave or recess, overhung by a portion of the schistus, sufficiently large to shelter twenty natives 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 wonders which he unfolded in this revelation were exactly proportioned to the quantity of food which I promised to give him. I once or twice charged them with attempting to impose upon my credulity and, far from denying the charge, they only laughed and said, “that was a very good thing which they told me, and that the Djanga (white men) liked it very much.”

COLOURS USED IN PAINTING.

In the painted caves on the north-western coasts five colours were used: red, several shades; yellow; blue; black, and white. With the exception of blue these colours are all known to the natives of the whole continent. The red they either dig up from the earth, fit for use, in the form of red earthy pebbles, or they find it in the form of a brilliant yellow clay, which they beat, clean, and dry, leaving it exposed to the air for several days, when they bake it in a bark basket, and then, if the clay is good and it has been well prepared and burnt, it is nearly as bright as vermilion. In some parts of the continent however no good clay can be found; and in this case, at their annual fair, where they meet to exchange certain commodities only locally produced, this brilliant red ochre is considered a very valuable article of traffic.

Yellow they obtain from several sources: the most common is the yellow clay from which the red is afterwards produced, but they also procure it from a stone which is traversed by veins of yellow earth; from the interior of the nest of a species of ant which collects a yellow dust; and from a sort of fungus from which a similar dust is also obtained.

The black is nothing but finely pounded charcoal.

The white is a very fine greasy species of pipe-clay, common all over
Australia, and which they use either wet or dry.

How the blue colour used in the caves on the north-west was obtained I do not know; it is very dark and brilliant, and closely resembles the colour obtained from the seed-vessel of a plant very common there, and which, on being broken, yields a few drops of a brilliant blue liquid. I therefore imagined that it was procured from this source.

AGE AND MOTIVE OF DRAWINGS.

With regard to the age of these paintings we had no clue whatever to guide us. It is certain that they may have been very ancient, for, although the colours were composed of such perishable materials, they were all mixed with a resinous gum, insoluble in water, and, no doubt, when thus prepared, they would be capable of resisting, for a long period, the usual atmospheric causes of decay. The painting which appeared to me to have been the longest executed was the one clothed in the long red dress, but I came to this conclusion solely from its state of decay and dilapidation, and these may possibly have misled me very much; but, whatever may have been the age of these paintings, it is scarcely probable that they could have been executed by a self-taught savage. Their origin therefore I think must still be open to conjecture.

But the art and skill with which some of the figures are drawn, and the great effect which has been produced by such simple means, renders it most probable that these paintings must have been executed with the intention of exercising an influence upon the fears and superstitious feelings of the ignorant and barbarous natives: for such a purpose they are indeed well calculated; and I think that an attentive examination of the arrangement of the figures we first discovered, more particularly of that one over the entrance of the cave, will tend considerably to bear out the conclusion I have here advanced.

SINGULARITY REGARDING THEM.

It is a singularity worthy of remark that the drawings we found in the vicinity of the coast were nothing but the rudest scratches; that they gradually improved until we reached the farthest point we attained from the sea; and that it was in the vicinity of this point that some of the best productions were found.