672 REPORT— 1886. 



shorter and very thick, tlie fore limbs longer and capable of rotation. The ana- 

 tomy of the foot differs from that of existing leaping Ijangaroos, and combines the 

 character of that of the wombat -with those of the Mylodon and Mastodon.* It is 

 therefore apparently a connecting link between Macropus and Phascoiomys. 



Its characteristics have been fully described by Sir Richard Owen in many well- 

 known works, and the chief interest attached to the present relic lies in its being 

 the only one discorered in Western Australia, and, besides, further north, within the 

 tropics, than any hitherto known of. 



The first discovery oi Diprotodon was made by Major — afterwards Sir — Thomas 

 Mitchell (then Surveyor-General), in 18^6, on the Bell River, a tributary of the 

 Macquarie, and some 200 miles south-west of Sydney.^ It was associated with 

 other extinct marsupials in a breccia cave in the limestone, and was named by Owen 

 Diprotodon optatum, since altered to australis. 



The associated fossils were Dasyurus Uiniarius (or Thylacoles), Macropus 

 atlas, M. Titan, Phascoiomys Mitchelli, and other indeterminate species. 



Diprotodon was subsequently found in many other parts of Ea.stern Australia ; 

 in the southern districts of New South Wales, at Munnimbidgee River, lat. 

 34° 30' S., and many other places ; in Queensland it was obtained in King's Creek ; 

 in the Darling Downs, and on the great dividing range of that district, in the Con- 

 damine River; and finally in Mary vale Creek, lat. 19° 30' S ; where it occurs in 

 alluvial breccia, associated with other extinct marsupials and crocodiles' teeth. ^ 



This was its furthest point north untU the present discovery. 



In Victoria its remains are found in many localities, one of the chief being near 

 Mount Macedon, about forty miles from 3Ielbourne. 



Similar remains have been met with in South Australia, as at Welcome Springs, 

 and at Hergott's Springs, 500 miles north of Adelaide. 



This so far had been the known range of Diprotodon. It had never been heard 

 of in Western Australia xmtU in 1883 the author, then attached to an exploring and 

 surveying expedition in Kimberley as Government Geologist, was fortunate enough 

 to find a single bone, which has been pronounced by eminent palaeontologists* to be 

 the head of the femur of the extinct kangaroo. 



The specimen was found in the bed of the Lennard River, in lat. 17° 20' S., and 

 long. 125° E., and about 80 mUes from King Sound. This river cuts a deep canon 

 through a 'barrier range ' of limestone, at this point two miles wide ; and the cliflTs 

 above the river-bed rise to a height of 300 to 400 feet. The range is named 

 Napier Range, and the gorge, from the difficulties to passage it presents, was called 

 the ' Devil's Pass.' Just below the western entrance of the gorge the bone was 

 picked up (a large coloured photograph was exhibited showing the scene). The 

 rocks are Carboniferous limestone, honeycombed by caves, and the author considers 

 that the bone may have been washed during heavy floods out of one of these. 

 Owing to want of provisions and the bad condition of his horses, the author could 

 not remain to examine these caves, but was reluctantly compelled to turn back. 



The discovery shows that the animal had an immense range, both of geographi- 

 cal and climatal habitat, being equally able to sustain the severe cold at times of 

 the southern and mountainous districts and the intense heat of the western tropical 

 region. 



Photographs of the bone were exhibited ; the bone itself was in the Colonial 

 and Indian Exhibition. 



4. Twelfth Report on the Circulation of Underground Waters. — See 



Reports, p. 23-5. 



' Professor Owen's Keport on Extinct Mammals of Australia, Rep. British Assoc. 

 1844, p. 23 et seq. 



2 Three Exjyeditions into the Interior of Eastern Anstralia, Major T. L. Mitchell, 

 vol. ii. p. 359 et seq. 



' R. Daintree, ' Geology of Queensland, ^./.G'.iS. xxviii. p. 274, 



* Prof. McCoy, Dr. Woodward, and R. Etheridge, jun. 



