in New South Wales. 307 



F. ELEPHANT. 

 Middle portion of the right femur of a small elephant, pro- 

 bably a young individual. 

 There does not exist a doubt, that this bone, which Mr Chft 

 supposed to resemble the radius of the hippopotamus, be- 

 longs to a small variety, or to a young individual of the genus 

 Elephant ; and what is still more remarkable, that it bears a 

 nearer resemblance to certain fossil varieties of that genus, e. g. 

 the fossil elephant so common in the valley of the Arno, than to 

 either of the living species. The New Holland fossil, if the bone 

 of a full grown individual, which is doubtful, would have be- 

 longed to an animal one-third smaller than the ordinary Asiatic 

 elephant ; but, as the epiphyses are broken off, it is difficult to pro- 

 nounce with certainty as to the age or size of the elephant to which 

 the fossil belonged, — suffice it to repeat, that it is the bone of an 

 elephant, a fact of considerable interest as connected with the re- 

 cent geological revolutions of the great Australasian Continent. 

 I presume it was this specimen that gave rise to the supposition 

 which I have seen mentioned in some of the periodicals of 1831, 

 that bones of the dugong had been discovered in the caverns of 

 Wellington Valley, with remains of land animals, arising from 

 the circumstances that the fossil in question bears a slight resem- 

 blance to the upper part of the radius of the dugong ; but, in 

 addition to the difference of size, — the fossil possessing three 

 times the dimensions of the radius of the dugong, — it offers all 

 the characters of the bone in the elephant to which I have re- 

 feiTed il, without one of the characters of the radius of the 

 dugong, if we except perhaps the flattened form observable in 

 the latter towards its upper extremity. 

 Ccmclusion. 

 From the foregoing comparison of the fossil bones of the 

 caverns of Wellington Valley, results, 1^^, that they belong to 

 at least nine different animals, viz. 



Dasyurus, or Devil of the Colonists, one species. 

 Hypsiprymnus, or Kangaroo Rat, one species. 

 Macropus, of Kangaroo Proper, three or four species. 

 Halmaturus, two species*. 



• The elegant or banded Kangaroo of authors belongs to the genus Hal- 

 maturus. 



X 2 



