THE VICTORIAN NATDRALIST. 31 



light of the candle which I held at arm's length down it, as I lay 

 on my stomach, craning over the edge of the opening; and as no 

 splash of waier responded to a stone thrown down it, I tied a piece 

 of stout line to my waist that I had brought, and got my companions 

 to lower me down. At a depth of about fourteen feet I stood on 

 the bottom, which is exceedingly rough and broken. This compart- 

 ment formed an oblong, irregular vault, varying from five feet to 

 fifteen feet in width, and about forty feet in length. The roof is 

 low, seldom permitting an erect position to be assumed. There is a 

 greater depth of earth on the floor here than in the last described 

 compartment. It is of a rusty red color, and uniformly fine, 

 being quite free from gravel. Here I unearthed several bones, more 

 or less mutilated, which chiefly belonged to kangaroos. 



At the northern extremity of this chamber, I found a small 

 opening leading into another — so small, indeed, that it was with the 

 greatest difficulty 1 could squeeze myself through it, after divesting 

 myself of my coat and waistcoat, notwithstanding! am only of medium 

 stature. This compartment is about thirty feet long, and about ten 

 feet wide, and the roof so low and uneven that only a crouching 

 position could be assumed in any part of it. It was here that I 

 found the largest number of bones. They were sticking out of the 

 floor of the cavern in all directions, and it was not long before I 

 exhumed a sufficient number to fill a large carpet bag that I had 

 brought with me. I dug up from a depth of nearly two feet from 

 the floor, bones of the boomer kangaroo {Macropus majoi-), together 

 with those of all other marsupial mammals indigenous to the island, 

 save the native tiger. 



The deepest deposited, and consequently older bones, had not 

 undergone transmutation by petrifaction to any appreciable extent; 

 for it may be here observed that the term fossil in a strictly scientific 

 sense, does not imply that organic remains must necessarily be 

 litholised or converted by petrifying processes into stone, as is 

 generally assumed by a large majority of persons. The oldest of 

 these bones have been altered so far as to lose trace of their animal 

 oil and albumen to a large extent; consequently, they readily clove 

 to the tongue — a simple test — showing that phosphate of lime, 

 alone, was left by time. 



I have been thus prolix in describing the compartment of this 

 subterranean cavity, in order that my hearers may be better able to 

 understand the data on which my deductions — that are to follow — 

 rest; not only for the comparative antiquity of the various animals 

 to which the bones belonged, but also the manner in which they 

 came to be deposited in such an out-of-the-way and certes remarkable 

 mausoleum. 



The following is a list of the animals to which the bones belonged, 

 which I exhumed, as determined by the late Mr. Gerrard Krefft, 



