Dr. G. Bennett's Search for Fossils in Queensland. 317 



returned to Jimbour in the evening, a distance of fifty miles. On 

 the 17th of November I arrived at Gowrie station, where, in the 

 creek running through the station, so many important fossil bones 

 had previously been obtained. I was at first at a loss how to com- 

 mence my explorations; having no one with any previous knowledge 

 of the places to direct me, I Avas thus left to my own resources. 

 So I drove to the creek, but beheld at first only high banks, either 

 with plain surfaces of red loam or rich black alluvial dejjosits, with 

 a few plants scattered about, in some parts grooved with water- 

 channels more or less deep, but nothing to indicate deposits, fossil 

 or otherwise ; or I came upon other portions of the banks dense 

 with vegetation, where even the narrow running stream was in many 

 places almost choked with the dense masses of reeds and rushes : all 

 combined formed a scene most uninviting to an explorer of fossil 

 remains. I soon left this useless part of the creek, and, driving a 

 few miles further down, stopped, and then descending, walked along 

 the banks for a short distance, and at last came upon a bank which 

 excited my attention : it consisted of alluvial soil, with concretions 

 of marl, strata of water-worn pebbles, and remains of perfect and 

 broken univalve and bivalve shells. This locality I regarded as 

 favourable for commencing my search for fossils ; and I was right in 

 my conjecture ; for I was gratified, and still further induced to per- 

 severe, by finding several fragments of fossil bones imbedded in this 

 bank. 1 then observed two teeth projecting from the soil, with the 

 well-known dull-blue colour, from A'ivianite, and, by careful digging 

 around it, obtained the portion of the jaw marked, in the collection 

 sent to you, ' Gowrie, A ' — the first acquisition of anj- importance. 

 On excavating some distance around this specimen, not a vestige of 

 any other portions of the jaw or any other kind of fossils could be 

 discovered ; but, extending my search in the same line to the bed 

 of the creek, and close to where the water was flowing, 1 found a 

 large lower portion of a femur deeply imbedded in the soil (marked 

 Gowrie, B) ; and this explains how so many of the fossil bones are 

 found in the bed of the creek, having been Avashed down from the 

 banks during perhaps years of heavy rains and floods ; and then, 

 during the intense heat of summer, the creek became dry ; for, as 

 the man (an old shepherd) who drove me said, he was present when 

 Mr. Isaac found and dug out the large head and other remains from 

 the creek; but then, he stated, 'there was no running stream then, 

 but only dricd-up water-holes.' It was observing this peculiar 

 formation of water-worn pebbles and shells on tlie banks that led 

 me to suppose that the fossil remains were to be found in those 

 localities where this stratum was found ; and wlierever I observed 

 similar appearances on the banks of creeks, I explored them, at- 

 tended -vvith more or less success, and at last obtained a key to more 

 successful explorations, which I afterwards followed up during mv 

 visits to Gowrie, and also when at King's Creek, Clifton, not for- 

 getting, also, to oxamine the bed of the creek near those positions 

 when the dry season would permit. By pointing out these localities 



