Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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