23 



of the ground beyond tending to form a small and shallow 

 amphitheatre, in which it occurs, perhaps about one to one and 

 a half acres in extent, and ranging at least for 150 yards 

 along the cliff. The shelly debris is composed of Vivipara 

 Hanleyi, and valves, whole or fragmentary, and at times highly 

 comminuted, of the river Unio. The fragments and minute par- 

 ticles into which the shells have been broken, from their nacreous 

 lustre, particularly those of the Unio, readily assist in defining 

 the extent of the deposit. Quartz chips may also be picked up 

 in abundance here and there, and have evidently been used. 

 Professor Tate says that no deposit of quartz is known for many 

 miles round. Scattered irregularly over this area, frequently in 

 close proximity to one another, are a number of small, circular 

 ovens, usually about three feet in diameter, seldom more. The 

 stones, about the size of the clenched fist, or rather larger, are 

 firmly bedded in the made soil, but all show, more or less, the 

 traces of fire, possessing a blackened, and in some places a greasy 

 look, whilst in others a semi-fused appearance seems to indicate 

 that they had been subjected to a considerable amount of calorific 

 influence. Black nuclei to the concretionary travertine not un- 

 frequently found on the Murray Cliffs, and about the shores of 

 St. Vincent's Gulf, are ascribed"^ by Professor Tate to the 

 carbonisation of the fatty matter of animals, which has pene- 

 trated into the stone in the process of cooking a V aborigine. Some 

 such process has, no doubt, taken place in the present instance. 

 The former greater area of this midden is proved by the fact that 

 the cliff edge now cuts across some of the ovens, the action of the 

 river at this particular spot undermining the cliffs, and bring- 

 down large masses. No doubt many similar middens might be 

 found on other parts of the river, for on the opposite, or south 

 side, about half-way between Morgan and Fossil Cliff, where 

 the bank is gently inclined, is a deposit of black carbonaceous 

 soil and comminuted shell fragments, extending up from the 

 water's edge, which, although no stones were observed in heaps, 

 represents, I have no doubt, another large midden. How like is 

 the material composing these heaps to the soil of the middens 

 seen on so many of the small promontories jutting out in Middle 

 Harbour, Port Jackson ; the Hawkesbury and its bi*anches ; and 

 other inlets on the east coast. Hardly a point along these waters 

 but has its heap, consisting of carbonaceous matter, charcoal, 

 soil and humus, intermingled in various states of disintegration 

 with cockle, mussel, limpet, and other common shells of the coast, 

 and here and there oysters. Many of these must be very ancient, 

 and have taken years to accumulate. The soil observed on the 



* Trans. Phil. Soc. Adelaide for 1878-79 [1879], p. 115. 



