Antiquity of Man in Victoria. 121 



Victoria dated from the volcanic period. The evidence quoted 

 in support of this belief was the occurrence of human imple- 

 ments below the lavas, and upon the existence of aboriginal 

 traditions of the eruptions. Since then I have had time to go 

 into the evidence, and am forced to abandon tlie opinion then 

 accepted. Some of the grounds for this change of view are 

 briefly stated in the Geography of Victoria (p. 51), but, as the 

 subject is of much interest, the arguments may be conveniently 

 restated at greater length, in the hope of thereby bringing forth 

 any convincing evidence to the contrary that may be available. 



II. — Reported Human Relics of the Victoriax Volcanic 



Period. 



The most reliable evidence of the existence of man in Victoria, 

 at the time of the last volcanic eruptions, would be the occurrence 

 of stone implements or of human remains in beds interstratified 

 with or below the volcanic rocks. Evidence of this nature has 

 been adduced ; but its reliability is doubtful. Some of it may 

 be dismissed very summarily. Thus, an aboriginal canoe is said 

 to have been found in one of the deep leads under the basalts of 

 Mount Tabletop in Dargo. Mr. Stanley Hunter, of the Geologi- 

 cal Survey, informs me that this canoe was an ironstone concre- 

 tion ; its shape, from his description, was that of the bow of an 

 English canoe (of the Rob Roy type), and did not resemble the 

 aboriginal Victorian canoe. This concretionary canoe has found 

 its way into our literature. Further evidence that may be as 

 readily disposed of is that of the reported aboriginal camp fires 

 under the Melbourne lava flows, at the Corporation Quari'ies in 

 Collingwood. On enquiry at the quarry, I was told that the 

 reports of the aboriginal flre-places were based upon a practical 

 joke. Whether this be so or not, the evidence has not been for- 

 merly recorded or described, and is at present merely hearsay. 



1. T/ie Buninyong Bone. — The most definite evidence in 

 favour of the existence of man, earlier than some of the basaltic 

 lavas, is a cut fragment of bone, found near Ballarat, in a bed of 

 silt, which lies beneath a sheet of basalt, formed as one of the 

 south-western flows from Mount Buninyong. The specimen 

 belongs to the Museum of the Ballarat School of Mines. The 



