314 Dr. G. Bennett's Search for Fossils in Queensland. 



XXXIV. — A Trip to Queensland in search of Fossils. 

 By Dr. Geoege Bennett, F.L.S. 



To ike Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



[Gentlemen, 



I have been favoured by my friend Dr. George Bennett, 

 F.L.S. , of Sydney, New South Wales, to whom I was in- 

 debted for the specimen described in my ' Memoir on the 

 Pearly Nautilus,' and for valuable materials while investi- 

 gating the generative economy of the Marsupialia and Mono- 

 tremata, with the following account of his excursions in quest 

 of materials for the work on which I am now engaged, de- 

 scriptive of the fossil mammals of Australia. 



The notes of the localities and conditions under which these 

 fossils are found may be, perhaps, not uninteresting to the 

 readers of the '■ Annals.' 



Richard Owen.] 

 " My dear Owen, 



" It will no doubt cause you some surprise when you receive this 

 communication informing you of my having visited Queensland, the 

 principal object of my visit being with the view of examining the 

 fossil deposits, collecting what I could during my short sojourn, and 

 making arrangements with friends to aid me, by pointing out to them 

 the localities on the creeks ifec. most likely to be attended with success. 

 That I was correct in considering those places I selected suitable 

 was shown by the successful results attendant on my explorations, 

 to the no little surprise of my companions. I left Sydney for 

 Brisbane on the evening of the 3rd of November, and arrived at 

 Brisbane on the morning of the 6th. The following day I was in- 

 troduced to the Hon. J. P. Bell and other members of the Govern- 

 ment ; and Mr. Walsh, the Minister for Works, finding my visit was 

 for scientific purposes, gave me a free pass over all the railways of 

 the colony. Mr. A. B. Buchanan, M.L.A., also gave me a letter to 

 Mr. Beattie, the superintendent of his station at Chinchilla, wliere 

 he expected I should find some fossil deposits. The principal places 

 I visited for fossils, and where I found, as others some years pre- 

 viously had also discovered, the richest deposits, were the Gowrie 

 Creek, on the Gowrie station, the property of George King, Esq., 

 M.L.A., of Sydney, and King's Creek, Clifton station, the property 

 of W. B. Tooth, Esq. At the former place I received the kindest 

 assistance from the proprietor's sons, Mr. George Beresford King and 

 Mr. Henry King ; at the latter a welcome and every aid from Mr. W. 

 B. Tooth himself. The consequence was, in the very brief time allowed 

 me to explore the creeks, the weather being fortunately very 

 favourable, I made a collection which I hope you will find of some 

 utihty ; moreover promises have been made to me by those gentle- 

 men and many others to send me from time to time such specimens 



