THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 35 



old dune. Their shape and appearance at once suggest that 

 they are the impressions made by a person sitting down, after the 

 manner of a blackfellovv, on the old hummock. 



It may be objected that it would be impossible for any such 

 tracks to be preserved, made as they were on such a yielding and 

 shifty material as the sand of a dune, especially at an angle of 

 3 2°. On examining a large dune now being formed near 

 Warrnambool, I found the surface much firmer than might have 

 been expected, owing to the fact that it had been raining the 

 previous day, and the sand was still damp. Tracks of birds, 

 bandicoots, rabbits, and dogs were numerous and remarkably 

 distinct. These tracks might easily be preserved by fresh sand 

 being blown over them within a short time after they were formed. 

 So it is by no means impossible, or even improbable, that human 

 footprints should be preserved under favourable conditions. It 

 may be now asked if any other tracks besides the ones already 

 considered have been discovered. 



There is in the Warrnambool Museum a slab of ^Eolian rock 

 bearing the footprints of a bird. This was obtained in a quarry 

 at Warrnambool, in 1876, at a depth of 25 feet from the surface, 

 and at an angle of 32 . The footprints are two in number, the 

 digits being about 2^ inches long, and the stone at the borders 

 of the impressions bulges out just as would occur by the pressure 

 of the foot. 



In July last Mr. Archibald wrote me as follows, from Warr- 

 nambool : — " On Saturday last J. Rodgers found in his quarry, 

 situate about 1^ miles east of the quarry you saw, a slab with 

 the impressions of two human feet on it. One was broken, the 

 other I have seen. It is that of a person going down the old 

 hummock, the weight having thrown up the sand in front. On 

 the same slab were the imprints of the pads of a dingo appa- 

 rently. . . . These were found at about 15 feet." 



Mr. Dobson, M.I.C.E., F.G.S., says that this footprint appears 

 as if made by a booted foot ; and a blackfellow, on being shown 

 it, scouted the idea of its being caused by a naked foot. No 

 measurements of this appear to have been taken. I do not 

 think that much importance need be attached to the blackfellow's 

 testimony. 



Again, in July, Mr. Archibald wrote from Warrnambool : — "A 

 stonemason called me from the Museum, the other day, to look 

 at the tracks on the slab he had just got in from the quarry. 

 The tracks were those of an emu, and the slab came from a 

 depth of 40 feet." 



When at Warrnambool I made inquiry of a good many men 

 employed at various quarries as to any other tracks they might 

 have discovered. They were unanimous in saying that they 

 frequently had come across tracks of birds, dingoes or wombats, 



