324 FOSSIL REMAINS 



dingoes were formerly (in pliocene times, for instance) 

 exceedingly abundant is shown by the abundance of their 

 remains ; but even in this present day a pack of dingoes 

 is no match for an " old man " only a tenth the size of his 

 progenitor of the tertiary age. The strength of such an 

 animal as Macropus titan must have been prodigious, and 

 if a latter-day " old man " can slash down dingo after dingo 

 with his powerful sharp-clawed hind leg, it is evident 

 that the ancestral titan could with ease sweep away 

 hundreds of them ; but the dingo knows better than to 

 attack an " old man." No number gives him courage to 

 attempt so mad and suicidal a task. Even other large 

 kangaroos are more than a match for the dingo. 



Kangaroos and wallabies must therefore have increased 

 at an enormous rate : and did so increase, as their 

 numerous remains testify ; and as I could never 

 discover that the land was formerly richer in vegetation 

 than it was at the time of its discovery, I am lost in 

 wonder that it was capable of supporting such vast herds 

 of animals. The modern colonist is worried about the 

 quantity of grass the kangaroos consume, and is at vast 

 expense in erecting fences by the hundred-mile length to 

 keep them away from his pastures. What would he say 

 had he hundreds to contend with where he now has but 

 units? and each individual of those hundreds ten times 

 the size of modern kinds, and presumably requiring ten 

 times the amount of food ! 



Kangaroos were present in Australia on the North 

 Darling plains, in many places in the interior of Queens- 

 land, and in portions of northern South Australia as 

 early as the beginning of the eocene age. That much I 

 can assert from actual observation ; but on Fitzroy Downs, 

 on the upper Dawson River, I found the skeleton of a 

 kangaroo while boring for a well which seemed to be in 

 even older strata. It is not always easy, however, to 

 be sure of the age of Australian strata. The depth 

 at which the bones lay was thirty-two feet, in ground 

 which consisted of a kind of limestone, with very thin 

 superficial deposits. 



