326 FOSSIL REMAINS 



the terrific shaking the ground must have sustained while 

 a herd of these giants were bounding over it. 



Other well-known species of Australian extinct 

 mammals have been found by me as follows : Nototherium 

 inerme, in all deposits as low down as the eocene, and in 

 many New South Wales and Victorian districts. But I 

 have not found traces of this species anywhere in the 

 northern parts of the continent. Macropus titan, M. Go/iak, 

 and M. atlas seem to have been almost universally dis- 

 tributed on the continent, and their remains are found as 

 low down as the middle eocene. All classes of existing 

 marsupials were represented in tertiary times, including 

 the rat-kangaroos, and all classes had then gigantic 

 representatives. A " native cat " (Dasyurus laviarius) was 

 a much larger animal than the present bearer of that 

 misplaced name ; but I found on the Gascoyne the 

 jaw-bone, with part of the teeth, of an animal of this kind, 

 which must have been as large as a leopard. It is just 

 possible that this huge dasyurus may have been a 

 formidable beast of prey ; but the probable, though con- 

 jectural, evidence is against that conclusion. 



Mice, probably of the genus Sminthopsis, are mostly 

 found in superficial deposits, though I have found traces 

 of them as low as the pliocene. They are generally from 

 a third to a half larger than present species, though one, 

 from the late pliocene of New South Wales, seems to be 

 identical with Sminthopsis murina. 



In size and general structure, Thylacynus speleus, the 

 continental extinct thylacine, differed but little from its 

 surviving Tasmanian relative. It clearly was not a true 

 marsupial, and it would be most interesting to trace its 

 ancestor. I have quite failed to do that ; and the remains of 

 the indicated species have not been found by me in earlier 

 deposits than the late pliocene. 



I believe the above notes carry the age of several 

 Australian genera of mammals to an earlier age than has 

 hitherto been assigned to them. I have hope, therefore, 

 that they will be of some small interest to scientific 

 naturalists. 



