EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 305 



appeared a few days afterwards (September 25th), extracts from 

 an Australian account of the matter, the South Australian Register 

 of August 12th. It seems that only a small portion of the area 

 known to contain fossil remains has as yet been explored, and 

 there is little doubt that a complete examination will yield 

 results even surpassing those already made. 

 Mr. Kinmont wrote as follows : 



" Birksgate, Glenosmond, Adelaide, S.A., August 9, 1893. 



"SlK, 



"Some two months ago a discovery of mammoth fossil 

 bones was made at Lake Mulligan in South Australia, which 

 promises to be of incalculable value to science, and the ' record ' 

 discovery of the kind for the century. As the subject is one 

 of world-wide interest, I propose to give you in brief, from my 

 own knowledge and observation, the facts and particulars of the 

 discovery. 



"Lake Mulligan is situated in the central district of South 

 Australia, and a more apparently uninteresting and forsaken 

 spot than this locality could not be found in the colony. When 

 the famous Australian explorers, Captain Sturt and Mr. John 

 M'Douall Stuart, went north-west from Menindie on the river 

 Darling, in 1844, they came into a great stony desert lying to 

 the eastward of Lake Frorne, and the party endured the most 

 terrible hardships from the frightfully barren nature of the 

 country, and the extraordinary heat of the weather. . . . 



"What a different picture of the past history of this country 

 is brought to light by the recent discoveries! On the sides of 

 these mountains lying between Lake Frome and Lake Torrens 

 must have been grown huge trees, and all around there must have 

 been a dense tropical growth, exceeding in luxuriance the forests 



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