BY THE REV. J. E. TEXISOX- WOODS, F.G.S. 387 



are on the slopes of the table laud. That the waters come from 

 great depth is seen from the fact of the temperature, and the 

 mounds of sinter or travertine around them. This, no doubt, is 

 the silica, &c., once held in solution by the thermal waters under 

 pressure, but liberated on arrival at a level where the pressure 

 was removed. 



In these mounds are found deposits of bones, teeth, and other 

 remains of those gigantic marsupials which once roamed over this 

 Continent, but which are now totally extinct. We find also the 

 remains of extinct Crocodiles, even within the limits of New South 

 "Wales, as well as a gigantic Lizard, Tortoises, &c. The largest 

 of our extinct Marsupials, the Diprotodon, must have been as 

 large as an Elephant, and the abundance of its remains in almost 

 every cave and river bed shows that it was very numerous and 

 wide-spread. Its disappearance from the Continent was in very 

 recent times. In 1866 I found the remains of a Struthious bird, 

 much larger than the Emu, in one of the kitchen-middens of the 

 natives in South Australia. The bones were marked by the 

 scrapings and cuttings of flint knives of the blacks. I then stated 

 that there was evidence that Australia had been formerly occupied 

 by a wingless bird much heavier and larger than the Emu and I 

 proposed for it the name of Dromaius australis. It has since 

 been named Dromornis cmstralis by Professor Owen, who has 

 found that the bird had formerly a wide range in Australia. 



It is generally thought that Australia is a Continent c^uite 

 recently upheaved from the ocean. There is, however, no evidence 

 of such an origin, at least for the whole. The facts of which we 

 can be certain are these : Since the Miocene period the southern 

 portion of the Continent for its whole extent has been upraised 

 to a height of about 600 feet. Subsequently or contempor- 

 aneously there has been a large amount of volcanic disturbance 

 with outpouring of basaltic lavas. After this there has been a 

 subsidence, not very considerable in depth, but extensive. This, 

 is seen, as Professor Tate has pointed out, by the fringe of Eoliaii 



