75 



summed up in a very few words. Nearly all the specimens 

 are mutilated, and so tender as to be removed from the matrix 

 only with the greatest care, the most perfect being of course 

 the comparatively hard teeth. They are in great numbers, 

 and clearly belong to many creatures. After a diligent search 

 I have found pieces belonging to almost all parts of the 

 skeleton, from the skull to the tail, and even the ultimate 

 nail -bearing joints of the toes, one or two of these last being 

 in excellent preservation. 



I have not arrived at any conclusion as to the nature of the 

 one large bone bedded in Travertine. Of the others I believe 

 that many of the teeth found belonged to creatures closely 

 allied to existing marsupials, such as Hypsiprimni and Pha- 

 langistse (Kangaroo Eats and Opossums) as I have carefully 

 compared them with specimens of these creatures' teeth from 

 my own cabinet. Of the history of the curious teeth in the 

 specimen marked 3, 1 am so far in the dark that it will be 

 better to wait for the decisive report of Professor Owen upon 

 them than to attempt any foolish guesses which might here- 

 after prove erroneous. 



Before concluding, let me call your attention to an interest- 

 ing geological fact connected with this Travertine, first 

 pointed out to me bv my friend the Government G-eologist 

 (C. Gould, Esq.), and which proves the recent geological age 

 of many of the masses of trap rock in our immediate neigh- 

 borhood. In opening a road from the lower part of the quarry 

 towards the Eiver Derwent, the workmen have exposed a 

 section, showing the actual contact of a stream of basalt with 

 the Travertine and clay beds, under which it dips from west 

 to east. As the strata have been considerably upheaved and 

 distorted at this point by the basalt, it is clear that the 

 Travertine is the more ancient formation of the two, and 

 it is quite possible that the pool in which the Travertine was 

 deposited was destroyed, and the springs which supplied it 

 were diverted by the upheaval of this very basalt. 



