122 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



ffeolotrical situation in which this bone was found has been 

 carefully described by Mr. T. S. Hart,^ of the Ballarat School of 

 Mines, and the bone by Mr. de Vis.'^ Its interest, as Mr. 

 de Vis states, is due to the fact that " on its posterior face the 

 ril) had been half sundered by a cut througli its dense cortex." 



The bone is a fragment of the rib of some giant marsupial, 

 and corresponds precisely, according to de Vis, with Nototheriion 

 mitchelli. The fragment is 6 inches long. Part of the edge has 

 been split off, and the bone has been thus reduced in width to 

 1§ inches. The bone is roughly fractured at one end and along 

 one side. The face has been flattened in two places by abrasion, 

 and at one end there is a long, sharp straight cut. Mr. de Vis 

 considers the possibility of this cut having been made by the 

 teeth of some animal ; but the only animal that, as he says, could 

 even excite suspicion, is the marsupial Lion, Thylacoleo carnifex. 

 There is no reason to consider that this animal could have made 

 such an incision ; the bone does not appear to have been gnawed, 

 and those who have I'ecently examined the bone generally agree 

 that the cut must have been made by a sharp metal implement. 

 The smooth surface was not likely to have been made by rubbing 

 down, because the opposite side of the bone projects with a 

 jagged broken edge, which would have been worn down at the 

 same time. The bone has been pyritized ; therefore, to preserve 

 it from decay, it has been sized and varnished, so that the fresh- 

 ness of the cut cannot now be determined. 



That the bone originally came from the swamp deposit below 

 the lava flow seems to me almost certain, for the head of the 

 same rib was found accompanying it. So far as I know, there is 

 no deposit of fossil marsupial bones near Buninyong, whence the 

 bones could have come. There is no special i-eason to regard the 

 specimen as having originated as a joke or fraud. It was handed 

 by the workmen who found it, to the manager, Mr. Kent, who 

 gave it to one of the directors of the mine, Mr. \V. R. Vale, who 

 in turn handed it to Mr. Hart. Mr. Kent has made a statutory 

 declaration that he received the bone, covered with dirt, with 



1 Hart, T. S.: " The Bone Clay and Associated Basalts at the Great Buninyong Estate 

 Mine." I'roc. Roy. Soc. Vict., vol. xii., n.s., Melbourne, 1899, pp. 74-80. 



•2 de Vis, C. W.: " Remarks on a Fossil Implement and Bones of an Kxtinct Kangaroo." 

 Proo. Roy. Soc. Vict., vol xii., n.s., Melbourne, 1S99, pp. 81-90, pi. vii. 



