36 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



kangaroos, and what they were certain were human footprints. 

 One man said that he had on one occasion traced footsteps for 

 nearly 50 yards along the bed he was working and going up 

 the face of the old dune. It is a pity that no precise record of 

 these discoveries has been kept ; but the quarrymen, not 

 knowing them to be of any interest, said nothing about them, 

 until Mr. Archibald, by mere chance, heard of and secured the 

 slab he has in the Museum. However, in the face of the 

 evidence we have, it is almost impossible to believe that all these 

 impressions can be mere lusi naturce. One of the principal 

 points to be observed is that all these marks appear to have been 

 impressed on the surface of the sand, for, as I have already 

 remarked, the stone at the edges of the tracks is distinctly bulged 

 out. In the case of the ones we have been specially considering, 

 it will be noted that the bulging out is at the lower edge of each 

 of the impressions. Now, if these were really caused by a 

 person sitting on the slope of a dune, this is just what might be 

 expected, as all the weight would be thrown forward. It cannot 

 be said that marks of toes have been satisfactorily made out in 

 these impressions, but in the left one, if seen in a favourable 

 light, five slight depressions, side by side, can be distinguished, 

 and these might easily have been made by toes. However, I 

 think, considering the yielding character of the sand, that it 

 would only be under very favourable conditions that such details 

 would be preserved. In the case of a person sitting down on 

 the slope of a dune, the act of rising would probably cause all 

 toe marks to be obliterated — partially, at any rate. 



The late Mr. Peter Beveridge, a well-known early settler, 

 states in his book, " The Aborigines of Victoria," that the blacks' 

 clothing — where any was worn — consisted of a 'possum-skin 

 cloak, worn like a toga, which fell to about the knees. I 

 think that in the impressions on the slab in the Warrnambool 

 Museum we have the record of two persons clothed in a cloak, 

 sitting close together and somewhat obliquely to each other, the 

 left one being probably a child, indicated by the smaller size of 

 the impressions. Considered in this connection, the age of the 

 formation in which the footprints occur becomes a most 

 interesting question. I have not been able to come to any 

 definite conclusion as to their age in terms of years, but there are 

 a few points which are worth considering. It has been already 

 noted that our impressions were found at a depth of 50 feet ; but 

 as they were formed on the landward face of a dune, we have to 

 consider not so much the vertical depth as the horizontal — i.e., 

 the distance in a horizontal line from the point where they were 

 formed to the outermost extension of the dune. In this case this 

 distance is several hundred yards. However, no great lapse of 

 time is necessary for this, for the rate at which a dune may 



