BY R, ETHBRIDGE, JUN. 263 



Wellington Cave fossils in the " Guide to the Australian Fossil 

 Remains exhibited by the Trustees of the Australian Museum, 

 &c.,"* mentions " the fractured crown of a molar tooth, probably 

 a human molar." The second notice occurs in a paper, " Further 

 Discovery of Remains of a Great Extinct Wingless Bird in 

 Australia," wherein he says — " I have found the fractured crown 

 of a hitman molar in the same matrix as Diprotodon and Thyla- 

 coleo, at Wellington, in this colony."! 



Thanks to the care manifested by Mr. Henry Barnes, at the 

 Australian Museum, of all the Wellington gatherings, the specimen 

 was forthcoming on enquiring for it. That it is the crown of a 

 human molar is, I think, beyond much doubt ; but to guard 

 against mistake I placed the specimen in the hands of Mr. P. R. 

 Pedley, who corroborates Mr. Krefft's determination, and further 

 suggests that it is probably of the upper right series. Minute 

 portions of the red cave earth are still adhering to it, but if the 

 tooth ever existed in a block of the breccia, with bones of the 

 extinct marsupial mentioned by Kretft, it has long been removed 

 from such. We have the testimony of Mr. Barnes that the tooth 

 was found at Wellington in the No. 3, or Mitchell's Breccia 

 Cavern, by Mr. KrefFt in person, the former having been present 

 at the time. On the two most important points, however, Mr. 

 Barnes' memory, after this lapse of time, is defective. Was the 

 tooth actually found in a block of breccia with the remains of 

 Diprotodon and Thylacoleo ?, or simply lying loose on the floor of 

 the cave ?, Mr. Krefft's expression in relation to these animals 

 having perhaps only been used in a figurative sense. In the 

 answers to these questions lies the solution of the problem. If 

 associated in a block of breccia with Diprotodon and other similar 

 remains, it must be admitted that strong evidence exists of the 

 presence of man at the time Diprotodo7i and Thylacoleo roamed 

 abroad. On the other hand, if merely a floor specimen, it may 

 have entered the cave in a fortuitous manner, and in such a case 



* 8vo, Sydney, 1870, p. 3. 

 t Geol. Mag. 1874, I. p. 46. 



