100 S2)encer and Walcott : 



part of this concavity towards the pointed end of the specimen, 

 the thin outside layer of the bone has been removed, and its 

 margin is similarly defined by scallops. The shape of the pointed 

 end is due to cuts. 



Fig. 14, Plate XXXVI., is a longitudinal section of the left 

 ramus of a kangaroo jaw. 



Origin of the Incisions and Cuts. 



In regard to the smaller incisions, it must be pointed out 

 that, though these are such as to produce a general scratched 

 appearance of the surface on which they occur, a large number 

 of them cannot, strictly speaking, be called scratches, if by a 

 scratch is meant an incision made by drawing a pointed imple- 

 ment, such as a needle or tooth, over some surface. Some of 

 the fine markings may be due to scratches, but in many of them 

 the incision, seen under a magnifying power, is not symmetri- 

 cal, and conveys the idea of having been made by a cutting 

 edge, sometimes of considerable length. Further, a very charac- 

 teristic feature is that they are curved (in many instances 

 boomerang shaped), whereas, if they were true scratches, they 

 would more naturally approach a straight line in form. Tlie 

 question arises ^vhether they have been produced naturally by 

 attrition or artificially. Tliat the former is not the case, their 

 very irregular arrangement and almost uniformly curved shape 

 seem to prove conclusively. We have, therefore, to search for 

 some artificial agency, and since from their nature it is highly 

 improbable that they were caused by man, the agency must be 

 found in some other predatory anim'al. 



It will suffice now to say that we believe this animal to have 

 been Thylacoleo, the evidence in favour of which we will pro- 

 ceed to bring forward in connection w'ith the discussion of the 

 question of the origin of the larger cuts. 



In many cases the fractures are of such a nature that they 

 might have been produced by the teeth of any such strong pre- 

 datory animal, as the Dingo^ Thylacine or Sarcophihts ; that is, 

 leaving Thylacoleo out of the question, we have animals which 

 lived in Victoria in those ancient times quite equal to the task 

 of merely fracturing the bones. It is, however, in the bones 

 showing cuts which, at first sight, would appear to be almost 



