EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 309 



marsupium, or pouch, have been found, and several distinct 

 impressions of the skin of the fore foot were obtained. The 

 locality is six hundred miles north of Adelaide, and, during the 

 dry season, all the carting and travelling has to be done by 

 camels, with a temperature of 111 Fahr. in the shade! to say 

 nothing of myriads of flies and frequent sandstorms. 



With regard to the geological formation of this salt-lake 

 district of South Central Australia, Lake Mulligan is a vast 

 level expanse of salt-encrusted, black mud, only becoming 

 filled after very heavy rains (see Plate LIV.). It is about 

 eight miles wide, and the bones are found somewhere about 

 midway between the east and west edges. Usually the salt 

 crust is not firm enough for bullock traffic, and it is probable 

 that thousands of bullocks have at different times been bogged 

 in crossing or attempting to cross. 



Several skeletons of a large wombat, about the size of a bullock, 

 have been unearthed, probably Phascolomys gigas ; also another 

 slender creature about the size of a sheep, which is as yet an 

 unknown animal. The meaning of this great find of bones 

 would appear to be that immense herds of Diprotodon and other 

 creatures, in seeking for water in a dry season, got bogged, just 

 as cattle do now in the North, by hundreds. Crocodiles and 

 alligators inhabited the fresh- water lakes that once covered parts 

 of the district, either in the Pliocene or Pleistocene period or 

 both. 



It now only remains to relate very briefly the progress 

 made since the present writer published the above account 

 in the year 1894. Palaeontologists have for years anxiously 

 awaited the reconstruction of Diprotodon by Dr. E. C. Stirling, 

 Mr. Zietz, and their colleagues of the South Australian Museum, 

 at Adelaide. 



