KIN»i ISLAND SAND-ROCK ANDERSON. 279 



and in position, except, after exposui-e in tlie blown sand. It 

 is mote tlian ])robable tliat these detaclied skeletal leinains 

 have been conveyed to tlieir piesent position in tlie saiid-rock, 

 not by running water but by a gradnal assimilation, into an 

 estiiafine or coastal sandy deposit, of the already disjointed 

 skeletons, probably from tlie immediate foi-esliore wliere they 

 had been accumulated after death. Otlier facts which lend 

 support to the conclusion that these dej)osits were formed 

 under marine coastal conditions are the presence of sevei'al 

 species of molluscai, with opercula of Grasteropoda., fi-agments 

 of sliells, and much comininuled shell material. 



This seems to me the most feasible expla-natioTi whicli would 

 account for the wide disti-ibution of the individual bones of the 

 various genera of animals occui-ring in the sand-rock. If they 

 liad been fossilised in the place where the animals died there 

 would, of a certaintj^ have been pi-esent local accumulations of 

 bones which had belonged to one iudividua.l skeleton or a portion 

 of one. In all the bones that have been picked up there is, so 

 far as observation has gone, no trace of any individual sf)ecimen 

 exhibiting marks of liaving been gnawed by carnivoi-a., although 

 the bones of a much lai'ger "native cat" than the preseiit 

 species appear indiscriminatelj' mixed with them. This would 

 tend to show that the bones wei-e not ex])osed for a,ny length 

 of time before their deposition in the sand-rock. 



Tl)e majority of the specimens wliich liave been loosened 

 from the original matiix and are now found detached among 

 the sand of the recent dunes occur in close relation to tlie 

 bones of the same genera of tlie present day, together with 

 those of the slieep and horse, so that in collecting, a certain 

 amount of discrimination is necessary. They have, almost in 

 every case, been liberated from the original matrix by the 

 triturating effect of the wind-blown sand on the exposures of 

 the hardened sand-rock, thus freeing the bones and leaving 

 them isolated in the recent sands. This action lias continued 

 further on the loose exposed bones, resulting in the 

 destruction of tlie external boney surface and the laying bare 

 of the spongy interior. Especially is this the case with the ends 

 and articular surfaces of the long bones, although not confined 

 to them. 



