264 HAS MAN A GEOLOGICAL HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA? 



must be looked upon as very poor evidence. The value of this 

 tooth is not increased by the fact that no other human remains 

 have been found in the Wellington Caves under similar circum- 

 stances, so far as the writer is aware, although portions of a human 

 skeleton, said to be that of a gin, wei-e found in No. 2 Cave by 

 Mr. Henry Barnes. I am assured by the latter that these were 

 not fossil, and are probably those referred to by Mr. Krefft in 

 the second edition of his " Australian Vertebrata, Recent and 

 Fossil,"* wherein he says — " Bones of the extremities found in a 

 cave at Wellington, being left and right femur, left and right 

 tibia, left and right humerus, portion of fibula." It is, however, 

 strange that Krefft, in the third edition of the same work, pub- 

 lished in 1871,1 says nothing about the molar or the gin's bones, 

 merely remarking, " Of man we have but scanty evidence 

 regarding the length of his existence here ; in not one instance 

 were weapons or implements obtained with the remains of fossil 

 animals." 



It will be seen from this that the later remarks of Mr. Krefft 

 himself do not tend to strengthen the view that the tooth in 

 question is worthy to take its place as evidence of man's existence 

 then, in the same manner that the bones of Diprotodon and Thyla- 

 coleo do of these animals. 



The molar consists of about two-thirds of the crown broken off 

 from the remainder of the tooth, the under surface exposing the 

 fractured dentine. The entire crown is so much worn down as 

 almost to reach the alveolar border. Regarding the tooth as an 

 upper right molar, the two inner cusps are almost worn away, 

 leaving the sulcus dividing them now, as a ridge. The inner 

 anterior cusp is the portion broken away, the inner posterior 



* " Australian Vertebrata (Recent and Fossil) representing all the Genera 

 known up to the present time, With Notes," by Gerard Krefft. Gat. Nat. 

 Industrial Prods. N. S. Wales, Paris Univ. Exhib. 1S67, p. 91 (8vo, 

 Sydney, 1867. By Authority.) 



+ "Australian Vertebrata, Fossil and Recent." Industrial Progress of 

 N. S. Wales, Part 3, 1871 (8vo, Sydney, 1871. By Authority), p. 2. 



