48 



REPORT ON A BONE BRECCIA DEPOSIT NEAR THE 

 WOMBEYAN CAVES, N.S.W. : 



WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW SPECIES OF 

 MARSUPIALS. 



By R. Broom, M.D., B.Sc. 



(Plates vi.-viii.) 



About 18 months ago I discovered a small bone breccia deposit 

 in the neighbourhood of the Wombeyan Caves. The deposit is 

 situated in a small depression near the top of the hill above the 

 present caves and no doubt is portion of the floor of an older cave 

 whose walls and roof have long since been weathered away. The 

 deposit consists of a rather hard light brown calcareous matrix 

 containing imbedded in it innumerable small bones. In some 

 parts the bones are almost all small and packed together so 

 closely that there is very little matrix; in others the matrix is 

 comparatively free from bones, only containing a few of the larger 

 forms. As the deposit is unquestionably old and contains some 

 forms new to science — two of which I have already described* — 

 I have thought it well to give a detailed account of the forms 

 found, as it will give a fair idea of the smaller animals living in 

 later Tertiary times. 



Macropus (Halmaturus) wombeyensis, n.sp. 



(PI. VI. figs. 1-3). 



Though the deposit is essentially one of small bones, there are 

 a number of bones of a species of Mdcrojvis. Besides a number 

 of vertebne and long bones, I have succeeded in finding three 

 imperfect fragments showing the upper molars, and four 

 moderately well preserved lower jaws— two of which are pre- 

 sumably from the same individual. In size the form was apparent!}' 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2) Vol. x. (Pt. iv. 1S95). 



