liV I'KOKIOSSOU SIK T W. K. DAVID, K. II K . KTI'. -oo 



face of *^he ground, the overlyinj? material beinj? the 

 alluvium of the Hunter River, in the Maitland dis- 

 trict. New South Wales. 



In view of the rapidity with which the Hunter 

 River changes its channel from time to time, as the 

 result of floods, this evidence must be accepted with 

 caution, as being quite inconclusive, unless support- 

 ed by other evidence, 

 b. Gerard Krefft (7). (8), a former curator of the 

 Australian Museum, Sydney, records the finding by 

 himself of the "fractured crown of a human molar 

 "tooth in the same matrix as Diprotodov and Thijla- 

 "coleo at Wellington, in this colony" (the Welling- 

 ton Caves of New South Wales). 



Commenting on this remarkable discovery, Mr. 

 R. Etheridge, jun. (7). concludes that this would 

 be much the most important evidence up to date a.s 

 to the geological antiquity of man in Australia, if 

 it were certain that the molar had been found in the 

 same mass of cave breccia as the remains of the ex- 

 tinct marsupials. There is still some of the red cave 

 earth adherent to this tooth, which is preserved at 

 the Australian Museum, but there is no trace of any 

 adherent breccia. At the same time the statement 

 of a scientist like Mr. Krefft, that he actually found 

 the tooth in the breccia, must surely be accepted. 



Mr. Etheridge has figured this tooth (vide Rec. 

 Aust. Mus., XI., 2, p. 31, and PI. 12, figs. 3-4, ' Ex- 

 ploration of Caves and Rivers of N.S.W." Parlia- 

 mentary Paper 1882). 



Important confirmatory evidence as to the tooth 

 having been in sitit in the breccia is supplied by the 

 fact that teeth of dingo (Canis dingo) occur in situ 

 in the bone breccia of the Wellington Caves, in as- 

 sociation with bones of Thylacolso, Sarcophilus, and 

 Diprotodon. The value of this evidence rests, of 

 course, on the assumption that the dingo was boated 

 over to Australia by the early Australian aborigiiu-s 

 (9). 



c. Mr. James Bonwick (7) states, "at Ballarat, a basai- 

 "tic stone weapon or tool-head, was unearthed in 

 "in the process of gold-prospecting, 22 inches below 

 "the surface, in a place which evidently had been 

 "disturbed." 



