24 



Murray is very similar in all but its accompanying species of 

 Mollusca. In these Murray middens it seems to me we have a 

 combination of Sections 2 and 3, Mirrn-yong heaps and native 

 ovens previously described. There is the fine carbonaceous soil 

 and comminuted shelly matter of the foniier, and interspersed in 

 it the small circular cooking places answering to the more 

 isolated native ovens of Central and Western Victoria, and the 

 Murray country, extending some little distance into New South 

 Wales along the course of that river. 



The shells found throughout the deposit were clearly used as 

 food, and as regards the TJnios this is interesting, for Grey saysf 

 that in South-western Australia the natives would " not touch 

 fresh-water mussels," very abundant in the rivers there ; but that 

 in the north-western part of the continent " they form a staple 

 article of food." 



* North-west and West Australia, 1841, II., p. 280. 



