278 RECORDS OF TUB AUSTRALIAN MDSKD.M. 



bones of extinct species of Marsupials. Mr. Bowling informed 

 me he had obtained a number of specimens frbm them. There 

 are no pebbles or boulders in either the calcareous oi' the red 

 sand-rock except in the immediate vicinity of tlie inetamorf)hic 

 rock outcrops. These deposits are now exposed quite near the 

 iiighest pai'ts of the sand-dunes and of the peninsula. In 

 some cases the highest outcrops consi.st of the metamorphic 

 slates, quartzites, etc., and the bone-bearing dej)osits are present 

 at least over one hundred and fifty feet above sea level. 



The fossils occur sparingly in the calcareous and siliceous 

 deposits but are quite common in the hard sand-rock. In the 

 former they have to be chiselled out, while in the latter a 

 pointed implement of some kind is necessary to release them 

 from the matrix and careful manipulation is needed if a useful 

 specimen is to be obtained. On the outcrops of the sand-rock, 

 fossil bones are exti-emely plentiful and are distributed 

 promiscuously through them, the long bones and jaw bones often 

 protruding from the exposed surfaces at all angles and some- 

 times resting intimately upon each other in couples and 

 bunches. There are no instances of the occurrence of whole 

 skeletons or even portions of" the same skeleton being found 

 together. In the sand-rock itself and fi-equently in the loose 

 sand, even at the highest exposures specimens of more than one 

 species of bivalve are of frequent occurrence, together with 

 numei'ous stout opercula of Gasteropoda, and much comminuted 

 shell material is disseminated through the de{)osits. Those 

 jiortions of the bones exj)osed to the atmosphei-e on the out- 

 crops of the saiid-i'ock aie usual I}- eroded by the action of wind 

 blown sand and for the same i-eason, all the bones which are 

 present in the i-ecent loose sand niake equally bad specimens. 



There is little doubt in nn' mind that these deposits, with 

 the exception of the bhiwn sand, have been formed under 

 marine shaUow water conditions. The occurrence of the 

 bones on every exposui'e justifies such a conclusion. They 

 are scattered indiscriminately through the matrix showing 

 no ai'rangeineiit in layei's and it seems cei-tain that the animals 

 whose I'eniains are hei-e embedded did not die in the position 

 in which their boiies are fossilised. There had been little or 

 no erosion of the bones pj-ior to their deposition and even the 

 teeth in the lower jaws of the various genera are mostly intact 



