“With some difficulty we prevailed upon the haggard old creature to venture with us into a whale-boat; so, with Queen Gooseberry for our guide, we crossed to the North Land. After examining the flat rocks in every direction, we found sufficient examples of these singular outlines to confirm at once the opinion that they were executed by the aboriginal inhabitants; but at what period is quite uncertain. From the half-obliterated state of many of them (although the lines are cut nearly an inch deep into the hard rock), and from the fact that from several of them we were compelled to clear away soil and shrubs of long-continued growth, it is evident that they have been executed a very long time. “At first we could not bring ourselves to believe that these carvings were the work of savages, and we conjectured that the figure of the kangaroo might have been the work of some European; but when, pursuing our researches further, we found all the most out-of-the-way and least accessible headlands adorned with similar carvings, and also that the whole of the subjects represented _indigenous_ objects--such as kangaroos, opossums, sharks, the _heileman_ or shield, the boomerang, and, above all, the human figure _in the attitudes of the corrobboree dances_--we could come to no other conclusion than that they were of native origin. Europeans would have drawn ships, and horses, and men with hats upon their heads, had they attempted such a laborious and tedious occupation. “An old writer on New South Wales, about the year 1803, remarks, when referring to the natives, ‘They have some taste for sculpture, most of their instruments being carved with rude work, effected with pieces of broken shell; and _on the rocks_ are frequently to be seen various figures of _fish_, _clubs_, _swords_, _animals_, _&c._, not contemptibly represented.’ “Some of the figures of fish measured twenty-five feet in length; and it is curious that the representations of the shield exactly corresponded with that used by the natives of Port Stephens at the present day. These sculptured forms prove that the New Hollanders exercised the art of design, which has been questioned, and they also serve to corroborate Captain Grey’s discoveries of native delineations in caves upon the north-west coast of Australia, during his expedition of discovery. At Lane Cove, at Port Aiken, and at Point Piper, we also met with similar carvings. Whilst on a visit at the latter place, it occurred to me that on the flat rocks at the extremity of the grounds belonging to the estate where I was staying, there might be carvings similar to those at the Heads; and on searching carefully I found considerable numbers of them in a tolerably perfect state of preservation. Of all these I took measurements, and made careful fac-simile drawings on the spot.”