Amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbide(a-Si1-xCx : H) films have been prepared by the rf sputtering using a silicon target in a gas mixture of Argon and methane with varying methane gas flow rate(fCH) in the range of 1.5 to 3.5 sccm at constant Argon flow rate of 30sccm and rf power in the range of 3 to 6 W/$ extrm{cm}^2$. The effects of methane flow rate and rf power on the structure and optical properties of a-Si1-xCx : H films have been analysed by measuring both the IR absorption spectrum and the UV transmittance for the films. With increasing the methane flow rate, the optical band gap(Eg) of a-Si1-xCx : H films increases gradually from 1.6eV to the maximum value of 2.42eV at rf power of 4 W/$ extrm{cm}^2$, which is due to an increases in C/Si ratio in the films by an significant increase in the number of C-Hn bonds. As the rf power increases, the number of Si-C and Si-Hn bonds increases rapidly with simultaneous reduction in the number of C-Hn bonds, which is associated with an increase in both degree of methane decomposition and sputtering of silicon. The effects of rf power on the Eg of films are considerably influenced by the methane flow rate. At low methane flow rate, the Eg of films decreased from 2.3eV to 1.8eV with the rf power. On the other hand, at high methane flow rate, that of films increased slowly to 2.4eV.