446 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



At the base, which is only slightly damaged, the longest 

 diameter of the orifice of the funnel is 8| inches, and the shortest 

 6 inches. The corresponding internal diameters of the opening 

 at the smaller end are 5J and 4| inches respectively. The outside 

 measurement of the circumference at the base is 28| inches, and 

 a similar outside measurement at the smaller end is 23 inches. 

 The original circumference has evidently been a good deal reduced 

 by the wasting away of the outer surface by the weather and wind- 

 blown sand during many years of exposure. 



This specimen was discovered on Tongo station, about three 

 miles eastward from the homestead. It was partially buried in 

 loose sand, near the margin of Tongo Lake, the outfall of which 

 flows into Paroo River. Tongo is in the county of Fitzgerald, in 

 the north-western portion of New South Wales, and is about 80 

 miles north-north-east from the town of Wilcannia. 



Plate XLI, fig. 1 is a photograph of the article standing upon its 

 larger end, and exhibiting the other extremity in its broken condi- 

 tion. There is a thin, irregularly-shaped patch on the outside of the 

 cylinder, consisting of the same material as the rest of the article, 

 but slightly lighter in colour. This patch was evidently put on 

 after the main trunk had been completed, because along portions 

 of the margin it has peeled off, owing to the difficulty of making 

 the new wet mixture properly adhere to the previously dried 

 surface. It was put on either to secure a uniformly rounded con- 

 tour, or to remedy some defect in the original structure, or partly 

 for both of these reasons. On examining the inner side of the wall 

 opposite to the middle of the patch there is a small flaw, which 

 probably extended through to the outside, where it was perhaps 

 larger, and required mending. 



Plate XLI, fig. 2 shows the larger end, with a view right through 

 the hoUow interior to the other extremity. Near the distal end of the 

 funnel there is a discoloured streak in the wall or shell, which is 

 shown in the photograph. Such a mark could have arisen from a 

 stoppage of the work for additional material, which was not quite 

 of the same shade along the joining line. This photograph also 

 contains a side view of the patch on the outside, showing places 

 where flakes have peeled off its edges, as stated in describing 

 Fig. I. 



On the inner side of the entrance of the funnel there are about 

 a dozen lines, from one to two inches long, resembling the impres- 

 sions of stalks of cane-grass or rushes. They are not arranged 

 symmetrically like what a net would have been, but appear to be 

 the marks made by the outside of a bundle of rushes or grass placed 

 inside the funnel for the purpose of keeping the plaster in position 

 while wet. This opinion is supported by the fact that only the 

 ends of some of the stalks have left their impression. They became 

 fast in the plaster, where they remained until they rotted away. 

 No impressions of a net are visible upon any part of the inner wall. 



