EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 307 



in the position of having to abandon the search for lack of means 

 to go on. Sir Thomas Elder, however, the distinguished initiator 

 and promoter of Australian exploration expeditions, with his 

 usual liberality to the cause of science, and with a desire to 

 advance the scientific reputation of South Australian work, has 

 come to the assistance of the museum in this matter, and has 

 enabled the directors to continue this most important and 

 extensive work. Dr. Stirling proposes to start for Lake Mulligan 

 himself this week, with a view of personally superintending 

 operations ; and there can be little doubt but that work in the 

 future will yield results even surpassing those already made. 



" I am, etc., 



"WILLIAM KlNMONT." 



The following is part of the article above alluded to from the 

 South Australian Register : 



" Sir Thomas Elder, G.C.M.G., has once more placed South 

 Australia under deep obligations to him by coming forward with 

 the monetary help necessary to enable further explorations to be 

 made of the area at Lake Mulligan, in which immense quantities 

 of fossil remains of extinct animals and birds are known to exist. 

 The generous assistance thus rendered has come at the nick 

 of time. The authorities of the South Australian Museum, 

 recognising the importance of the discovery in the interests of 

 science, have already done much to secure specimens of the bones 

 which have been preserved from destruction ; but the funds at 

 their disposal are limited, and, unaided, they would have been 

 unable to have carried on excavations except upon a very 

 moderate scale. Owing to the munificence of Sir Thomas Elder, 

 the search party, under charge of Mr. Hurst, which has succeeded 

 in sending down a sufficient number of specimens to whet the 



