128 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



the rapidity with which sand dunes travel, it appears quite pos- 

 sible that these implements were buried by an advancing dune, 

 and need not imply any vast antiquity. It is probable that the 

 layer with the broken shells was only the surface layer on the 

 dunes, resting on the underlying sandstones on the edge of the 

 dune. 



Further striking negative evidence is given by the bone beds 

 beside Lake Kolungulac, and elsewhere in the Hampden basin ; 

 they contain bones of the giant marsupials, and if the aborigines 

 then lived in Victoria, they would surely have gone to those 

 localities to obtain food. So far no worked flakes have been 

 found in association with these bones, and none of the bones 

 show any signs of having been cut or broken by the aborigines. 



Again, the dunes beside the lakes on the western plains have 

 heaps of kitchen midden material. They only occur on the 

 surface. Sections have been cut in all directions through the 

 dunes, but none of these conspicuous hummocks of rubbish have 

 been found at any depth that would imply any considerable 

 antiquity. The quarries at Mount William, near Lancetield, 

 worked by the aborigines for the stone used for their greenstone 

 axes, are all small and shallow, and no great amount of stone has 

 been i-emoved from them. 



Negative evidence has, of course, to be accepted with reserve, 

 but it is unusually weighty in regard to the age of the Australian 

 aborigines. The stone flakes, which they used, are almost 

 indestructible ; and they are scattered with extravagant untidi- 

 ness about the aboriginal camps, where chipped stones can be 

 collected by the bushel. The sites of the recent aboriginal 

 camps in the Lake Eyre district, and of the earlier aborigines in 

 Victoria, are marked by large quantities of these implements. 

 Polished aboriginal axes are scarcer, but they also have been 

 found widely scattered over the surface of Victoria. Accordingly, 

 if aborigines lived long ago in Victoria, we ought to expect an 

 abundance of their stone implements in the beds then being 

 deposited. Excellent sites for former camps can be easily 

 found. The "false bottoms" or "cement floors," which occur 

 in our alluvial deposits, would have formed admirable camping 

 grounds, and hundreds of acres of these floors have been cleared 

 by mining operations, and the surfaces searched by our keen> 



