THE MARSUPIALS, OR POUCHED ANIMALS. 107 



All of the above-mentioned fossil Marsupials, 

 which have been described by Owen in his 

 masterly work, 1 belong to the most recent geological 

 past. They are found principally in Eastern and 

 South-eastern Australia, partly in river-beds 

 as for instance in that of the Condamine and 

 its tributaries and in the dried-up deposits of 

 fresh waters, partly also in caves. The so-called 

 Darling Downs, not far from the Condamine, have 

 yielded a great number of these fossils. It was 

 here that Leichhard, among others, collected at 

 the commencement of his journey the remains of 

 the Diprotodon, and considered them so little like 

 fossils, that he expressed the hope that he would 

 meet with living specimens of the same animals in 

 the interior of the continent. 



In conclusion, we come again to the question 

 as to the relation between the American and the 

 Australian Marsupials, with regard to which, as 

 has already been said, the primitive earth gives 

 us no clue. Several peculiarities, more particu- 

 larly the completeness of the dentition, point to 

 the Didelphidae as the earlier branch. But there 

 is also another circumstance. According to Bar- 

 Owen, Extinct Mammals of Australia (London, 1877), with 

 131 plates. 



