276 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEDM. 



Stephenson ot" Yanibacoona, while draining a swamp on his 

 property in the northern portion ol: the island. The specimens, 

 consisting of portions of the lower jaw are now in the Victoria 

 Museum, Launceston, and are the tirst and only specimens yet 

 obtained from the island. These I'einains, however, occuii'ed in 

 an inland lake deposit and not in marine coastal accujiiulatiuns 

 such as the ossiferous sand-rock of the southern end of the 

 island, with which this note deals. They are ])robably 

 geologically earliei', as, so far, there have been no evidences of 

 contemporaneity with the extinct species of Marsupials above 

 referred to. 



The deposits from which the bones were collected hihI from 

 which the specimens wei'e obtained which were desci'ibed by 

 Professor S[)encer are situated near the extreme southern 

 point of the island, on the most southerly of Mr. J. M. Bowl- 

 ing's farms, to the south-east of Surprise Bay. The sand- 

 dunes in this locality attain a considerable elevation. They 

 are the most extensive on the southern half of the island, and 

 with the ossiferous sand-i'ock occurring among them, cover its 

 most southerly promontory, the geological formation of which 

 consists of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, chiefly phyliites, 

 schists, quartzites, etc. similar to those ex{)osed in other parts 

 of the island. Outcrops of these are not infrequent proti'uding 

 from among the sand deposits and they usually prevail a long 

 the immediate foreshore, around the southern end of the 

 island. 



The bones are usually found in the loose wiiul-blowii snnd 

 now foi'niing the I'ecent sand-dunes, but this is not their 

 oi'iginal nuitiix, which is generall}^ a faii'ly hai-d sand-i'ock, of 

 a reddish-brown colour, coai-se in texture and frequejitly ex- 

 posed through the sand-dunes. Tliere is no apj)arent laniina- 

 tion in the deposit, yet on the eastei-n asj)ect of tlie jieninsuia, 

 it outcrops through the sand in numerous bold, parallel ridges, 

 exhibiting suspicions of false bedding, which foini quite a feat- 

 ure in the sand-dune landscape. 



These ridges of sand-rock appear to have h decided southerly 

 dip which, howevei', may perhaps be due to blown sand 

 weathering. This, in othei- legions, is very often the case, ajid 

 is chiefly due- to the occurrence of a persistent prevailing 



