PKOCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER. Xxiii 



by soakage, but if this was so it would follow that the whole of these 

 pans would be salt, which I have shown is not the case. My idea is 

 that a reef extends throughout the length of these pans. Supposing this 

 to be so, would the salt rise from any great depth ? I think not, and if 

 my theory is correct, the reef cannot be far from the surface. 



Mr. Stephens said Sir Lambert Dobson, who had had a lengthy 

 knowledge of the district, might impart some information. 



Sir Lambert Dobson had known the salt pans district for a period of 

 53 years. They were really small lakelets which contained salt water, 

 and from which, during summer, the evaporation caused the layer of salt 

 to form. In past years this was made a source of revenue by collectors of 

 thesalt, which was of exoellentquality,and suitablefor domestic purposes. 

 Some of the lakelets provided richer deposits of salt than others, but no 

 reliable information, so far as he was aware, was forthcoming respecting 

 the origin of these deposits. Evidently they did not originate from springs, 

 because during summer the lakelets dried up. The soil around was 

 fertile, the native grasses growing well. This suggested that the water 

 became impregnated with salt below the surface. 



Mr. Johnston considered the subject one of deep interest, and worthy 

 of consideration at the hands of members of the Society. He thought 

 that Mr. Barwick had given good reasons in favour of the idea that the 

 salt was derived from some underlying rock formation of marine origin — 

 probably of upper palteozoic age — whose members are often highly 

 charged with saline matter. 



Mr Stephens said it would be interesting to ascertain from the 

 inhabitants of the district if the trade in the salt had been discontinued 

 owing" to a decrease in the supply, or market influences. The diflference 

 between salt and fresh water lagoons was that the latter always had 

 natural outlets, and even if some of these lagoons having outlets 

 contained a percentage of salt from the solid deposits, the outflow 

 naturally brought about a reduction of this. Many of the sandstone 

 formations in Tasmania were particularly saliferous, and contained 

 large percentages of all the salts, from Epsom salt and alum to 

 chloride of sodium. This especially was noticeable in caves which 

 protected the deposits from being carried away by the rain. It should 

 be remembered that a large portion of this district had been under the 

 sea about the tertiary period, if not in post tertiary times. The 

 possibility of the existence of a solid bed of salt, as suggested by Mr. 

 Johnston, should not be ignored. 



Mr. Johnston doubted this. 



Mr. Stephens said that the district, as far as Antill Ponds, gave 

 evidence in favour of this. Marine fossils were not likely to be found 

 where the land had been rising or in drift. 



THE LAST LIVING ABORIGINAL OF TASMANIA. 



Mr James Barnard read the following paper compiled by him upon 

 this subject : — It has been generally supposed that the grave has 

 closed over the remains of the last of the aborigines, and that the 

 extinction of the race has been final and complete. This supposition, 

 however, is believed to be erroneous ; for there still exists one female 

 descendant of the former " princes of wastes and lords of deserts ' in the 

 person of Fanny Cochrane Smith, of Port Cygnet, and the mother of a 

 large family of six sons and five daughters, all of whom are living. Some 

 doubts have been cast in Parliament and elsewhere upon the claim of 

 Fanny (to keep to her pre-nuptial and first Christian name) to be of the 

 pure blood of her ancestors, but after searching the records, and upon 

 her own personal testimony, and from other evidence, there seems to be 



