president's address. 1239 



locality, in which their remains have been discovered in great 

 abundance is at Caddie Springs, 15 miles south of the Darling 

 River, near Brewarrina. 



These are boggy springs, situated in a small depression, one 

 quarter of a mile in diameter, and five feet deep, on the open plains. 

 In the centre of this hollow a shaft was sunk 28 feet deep in mud 

 full of bones. Amongst these were bones of Dijyrotodon, Sthenurus, 

 Macropus Titan, large wombats, large birds probably emus, ci - oco- 

 diles, and a gigantic carnivorous lizard, Notiosaurus, which has 

 lately been described by Sir Richard Owen. These bones arc 

 found only within a few yards of the centre of the Spring, which 

 is ten miles distant from the nearest watercourse. 



The occurrence here of the remains of crocodiles shows, as has 

 been already stated, that previous to their dying out, there must 

 have been abundance of water in this now waterless country ; and 

 the association of their bones with those of the animals above 

 mentioned, in such numbers in this small boghole, is very signifi- 

 cant as to the cause of their extinction. Nothing but want of water 

 could have brought together such a heterogeneous assemblage of 

 animals to the same drinking-place ; and what must have been their 

 last terrible struggle for existence, as the supply of water failed, 

 must be beyond description. 



This one instance may be taken as typical of the general cause 

 of the disappearance of these animals since Pleistocene times, viz , 

 want of water ; and want of water must have been consequent on 

 diminished rainfall, which in its turn probably led to the gradual 

 dying out of the once rich Pleistocene Flora. 



Stinted of their food supplies, and being unable from their great 

 bulk to migrate rapidly or adapt themselves readily to the altered 

 conditions of life, Diprotodon and the other large herbivores, 

 perished by degrees from the combined effects of want of suste- 

 nance, the raids of predatory beasts, and possibly the attacks of 

 man. 



Their likeness, however, is still to be traced in the Native Bear, 

 Wombat, Kangaroo, &c., which still survive on our mountain 

 ranges and plains, as the comparatively pigmy types of their 

 gigantic predecessors. 



