130 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



indeed found skeletons in three distinct layers in the shifting 

 sand dunes of the Lower Loddon ; but these dunes accumulate so 

 rapidly, that the deepest skeleton need not be more than a few 

 centuries old. 



The lack of aboriginal implements from our gravels, dunes, 

 river silts, and volcanic rocks gives very weighty evidence that 

 man was not present in Victoria during their formation. 



IV. — Supposed Ancient Human Impressions in 

 "Wakrnambool Sandstone." 



Considerable attention has been recently called to a slab of 

 dune limestone containing some well-marked impressions, now in 

 the Warrnambool Museum. The rock is generally known by its 

 local name of "Warrnambool Sandstone." It was clearly 

 formed in dunes, composed of shell-sand and foraminifera, the 

 grains of which have been cemented into a colierent rock. The 

 face of the slab represents the false-bedded surface on the slope 

 of the dune. On the slab there are, side by side, two broad, 

 smooth depressions. One margin of each is preserved, and is a 

 regular, open curve ; the two depressions are separated by a ridge 

 of 1^ of an inch in width. In front of one of the depressions are 

 two deep imprints, as if made by a pair of feet. 



The following interpretation of the specimen is attached to it 

 in the Warrnambool Museum : — "The imprints upon it are those 

 of a woman and a man who, during the geologic period, at the 

 time when the slab was loose sand forming part of the ancient 

 hummock or sand dune similar to those found around our coast at 

 the present, were sitting side by side at its foot. Two footprints 

 on the left side, longer and wider, evidently those of the man, 

 were taken away and built into the walls of the Town Hall." 



The label gives not an unnatural explanation of the impressions 

 on this slab. The human origin of the imprints has been affirmed 

 by Mr. Graham Officer,^ who first described them; by Archibald,'^ 



1 Officer, C. G. W.: "The Discover.v of Supposed Human Footprints on Aeolian Rock 

 at Warrnambool." Vict. Nat., vol. ix., 1892, pp. 32-39. 



2 Archibald: "The Discovery of the most Ancient or Tertiary Men in Australia;" 

 Science of Man, vol. i.. No. 2, n.s., pp. 40-41, Sydney, 21st March, 1898. See also 

 " Further evidence to establish discoveries in Warrnambool quarries ;" Ibid., vol. i., No. 

 4, pp. 86-7, Sydney, 21st May, 1898. "The Palaeolithic Men in Tasmania and Australia;" 

 Ihid., vol. ii., No. 2, n.s., p. 30, Sydney, 21st March, 1899. "The Relics of Primitive Men 

 found in Australia ;" Ibid., vol. 11., No. 2, n.s., pp. 32-33, Sydney, 21st March, 1899. 



