THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 49 



await with interest Mr. Stirling's account of these presumably 

 pleistocene relics. Most present will probably have read descrip- 

 tions of the scientific exploration of British caves, and will 

 remember how abundant remains were found of animals long 

 extinct in Britain. Some of the caves proved to have been dens 

 in which hysenas lived, and to which they brought bones, and 

 assuredly also flesh, of mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bison, 

 bear, and deer. Others furnished bones and other tokens of 

 occupation or use by man. Something has been already learnt 

 of the predecessors of the present fauna of Australia from a study 

 of the WeUington and other caves in New South Wales, and some 

 of the Tasmanian caves yielded treasure when explored by 

 Mr. Wintle, and we anticipate that cave-hunting will prove as 

 fascinating and as successful in Victoria. A number of the 

 fossils from the Muddy Creek tertiary beds in the Western 

 District have been figured by Professor Tate. But the most 

 important work in this subject during the year has been accom- 

 plished in an older formation. One of our members, Mr. 

 George Sweet, has made an extensive examination of the old 

 red sandstone rocks of the Mansfield area. Backed by the 

 Government, his excavations were made on a large scale, and 

 many tons of stuff — the stuff being rock of the hardest descrip- 

 tion — were removed under his superintendence. His search has 

 been rewarded by the discovery of many fish and plant remains. 

 Some of the fish were in a state of capital preservation, and were 

 so carefully and skilfully relieved of the matrix by Mr. Sweet that 

 Professor M'Coy, who has undertaken the description of the most 

 important of the fossils, is enabled to identify the forms pre- 

 viously known, and to prepare excellent figures of the new 

 species. Mr. Sweet read a paper before the Victorian Royal 

 Society, in which he gave in full the relations of the very numerous 

 beds, and described the mineral character of each, together with 

 the fossils each contained. We are glad to learn that Mr. Sweet 

 purposes to continue his investigations, and to examine the 

 similar beds in other portions of the area. 



Such, then, are the principal additions to our knowledge of 

 Victorian natural history made during the year. It is one 

 function of our Society to bring the gains won by those who are 

 prosecuting original researches before our members and the 

 public. But this is by no means our sole duty — to be keen only 

 for that which is brand new, fresh from the study or the 

 laboratory, rejoice though we do to welcome all advance, and to 

 laud all achievements, in pure science. But the great majority of 

 the members of our Club are banded together for the systematic 

 enjoyment, as much as for the systematic study, of Nature. We 

 may have wrestled with the problems of geology, but we have 

 learned to love the forms wrought out by earth-sculpture, the 



