44 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Tlie existence of the Dingo in tlie Australian Continent 

 exclusively, during the Pliocene Tertiary period, is invested with 

 much that is paradoxical when there is sucli strong evidence to 

 show that at that time the island of Tasmania and the mainlaiid 

 were one. The remains of tliis animal are among the most ancient 

 of indigenous mammals, being found in company with tliose of 

 Thylacoleo, ]S"ototherium, Diprotod-^n, and Procoptodon in the 

 Pliocene drifts at Colac, in Victoria. Tasmania has its living 

 Wombat, in considerable numbers, so also has South Australia, 

 but of a different species — the haiiy-nosed Wombat — where its 

 fossil remains are found in Pliocene Tertiary deposits. ISTot so in 

 the former colony, for no remains of the Tasuianian Wombat have 

 been found, as far as I know, in deposits older than tlie Post 

 Tertiary, which are accumulating at tlie present time. Accordingly, 

 it is only reasonable to infer from this data, that the South 

 Australian Wombat claims a greater antiquity than that of 

 Tasmania. 



The marked absence of these links in the chain of distribution 

 of Australian animal life in such a comparatively circumscribed 

 area, may, to a great extent, be ascribed to the difference of climatic 

 condition in the past ; but even regarding such assumed condition 

 by the most favorable light, we are still in the dark as to the why 

 and wherefore of the Sarcophilus being an inhabitant of the island 

 and extinct on the mainland — why the Thylacinus should be 

 found living in Tasmania while it is only found fossil on the 

 Continent ; and why no traces of the extinct Diprotodon, 

 Thylacoleo, IsTototherium, and other gigantic marsupials that 

 roamed the Australian forests during the Pliocene epoch, never 

 had, like the Dingo, an existence in the island across the Straits. 

 These are problems which may yet be solved in tlie future Avhen 

 Australian geology and Australian iialEeontology can boast more 

 practical working disciples than they can at the present day. 



One of the most interesting examples of fossil osseous relics 

 furnished by Tasmania is to be seen in the Royal Society's museum 

 at Hobart. This consists of the almost entire skeleton of a 

 wallaby in a block of shelly limestone of marine origin. It was 

 discovered many years ago in a cliff of later Pliocene age at Table 

 Cape, on the North West Coast of the island. This cliff is 

 celebrated on account of its fossil shells, which are very abundant 

 and in a beautiful state of preservation. This formation may be 

 best described as a Tertiary raised beach, and is the equivalent of 

 the well-known fossil shell beds of Victoria, of which those at 

 Schnapper Point and Cape Schanck may be taken as type. The 

 bones of the wallaby (which species appears to be identical with the 

 common Halmaturus Billardieri) are seen in a natural position, just 

 as the creature died. This skeleton is embedded in a matrix 



