58 IN AUSTRALIAN WILDS 



of eggshell. Lower jaws of Wallabies were most 

 numerous. Portions of Seal skeletons were observed, 

 and bones of sheep also were scattered over the sand. 

 I had the luck to discover a specially fine Wombat 

 skull, which is now in the National Museum, Mel- 

 bourne. 



A member of our party zealously collected the 

 largest bones he could find and returned to the boat 

 (we had come round the coast in the steamer) laden 

 with the spoil. When he showed them to an expert 

 he was disgusted to learn that nearly all the bones 

 which he had gathered were remains of the common 

 sheep, and cast the "rubbish" into the sea. 



Most interesting of the sub-fossil remains from 

 King Island are those of the Emu, a species which has 

 long been extinct. Peron, the French naturalist, saw 

 the great birds alive. At the time of his visit men 

 on the island owned dogs which had been trained to 

 hunt Kangaroos and Emus. The King Island Emu 

 was distinct from the Tasmanian bird (also extinct), 

 and the form that still flourishes in Australia. It is 

 most regrettable that two members of the remarkable 

 family, Dromseidas, should be in the Legion of the Lost. 

 The King Island species was abundant when white men 

 first settled there, and must have been warred against 

 mercilessly. Animals on a small island have no way of 

 escape ; hunted from one refuge to another, extermina- 

 tion is their certain fate. 



We were puzzled to account for the presence of 

 such vast quantities of sub-fossil remains in a 

 restricted area. One theory advanced was that Bush 

 fires had driven the animals to the place where they 

 perished, and left their bones to astonish naturalists 

 of a future age. Another suggestion was that, feed 

 being particularly abundant in the area now covered 

 by sand, it became a favourite resort of wild 

 creatures. 



Penguin Island, one of the western isles of Bass 

 Strait, is honeycombed with burrows of Eudyptula 



