266 HAS MAN A GEOLOGICAL HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA? 



channel we now know as Bass' Straits ; and herein lies one of the 

 strongest proofs of man's early existence on the Island Continent 

 of Australia. Notwithstanding this, however, there remains the 

 undoubted fact that we still lack trustworthy geological informa- 

 tion of the approximate date of his first advent in Australia. 



Addendum. — I omitted to mention the only other reference 

 known to me, which can have any possible bearing on man's con- 

 nection with our extinct gigantic fauna. I refer to the discovery 

 which the late Rev. J. E. T.-Woods believed he had made of the 

 scraped and cut bones of an extinct bird termed by him Dromaitis 

 austi'alis, and with which he supposed the Aborigines to have been 

 co-existent. (See Mr. Woods' " Report on the Geology of the 

 South-Eastern District of the Colony of South Australia, 1886," 

 p. 7; " Nat. History of N. S. Wales— An Essay," 1882, p. 27; Proc. 

 Linn Soc. N. S. Wales, 1883, VII. p. 387). As, however, but 

 meagre details are given, no figures, and as I have been unable to 

 satisfactorily trace the bones, this possible evidence cannot at 

 present be traced further. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE. 



fig. 6. — Human Molar from cave breccia, Wellington ; crown view ; x 2. 

 Australian Mus. 



Fig. 7. — The same; side view; x 2. 



