president's address. 861 



opened down the back, it was found that this disease had been 

 contracted by sheep, the wool having been cast off and leaving 

 underneath a raw surface, on which it is feared it will never 

 again grow. 



The last examination of the Wellington Caves was made by 

 Mr. Henry Barnes, Articulator of Skeletons, under the super- 

 intendence of the Curator, by direction of the Trustees of the 

 Australian Museum, and the search for fossil organic remains 

 commenced on the 1 2th July and terminated on the 1 7th November 

 1881. The Wellington Caves consist of a cluster of four or five 

 caves, adjoining each other but distinctly apart. The first and 

 second caves, on being searched, contained no bones, the former 

 having a pond of water in it. The third cave is the cave or cbasm 

 from which the late Sir. Thomas Mitchell obtained, many years 

 ago, the original specimens of fossil relics which were forwarded 

 to Professor Owen, of the Zoological Society of London. Here 

 a shaft was sunk, commencing at the surface of the ground 

 immediately over the cave and descending through the roof. 

 This shaft pierced through a very hard breccia, which contained 

 bones, more or less, throughout its length ; among these, half of 

 a lower jaw, quite perfect, of Thylacoleo, was discovered. The 

 fourth cave is the largest of the group, and was the one most 

 carefully searched, by the aid of numerous shafts and trenches, 

 for organic remains. This cave is of an irregular squarish form 

 with the floor descending from the entrance, and its length is 

 about 500 feet, with a varying height up to 60 feet. A short 

 distance from the entrance, the passage widens to some length into 

 a broad alley, turning decisively towards the left ; then, by a 

 sharp, almost rectangular bend — also to the left — it narrows, till 

 it reaches a stalagmite mass of rock, named by the explorers the 

 Pulpit, where the course is interrupted by a barrier of rock ; and 

 the cave then turns, forced again to the left, at nearly a right 

 angle, to continue its way to an abrupt termination, at which 

 there is a deep well, at a point in the immediate neighbour- 



