Proceedings, fyc. xxiii 



wrecks have occurred apparently from unforeseen irregularity of the 

 compass off that coast. The other incident I have alluded to I 

 cannot now refer to the printed authority for, in the first instance, 

 but I vouch for its accuracy, and as I was, while perusing the 

 evidence therein referred to, engaged in compiling a work upon the 

 colonies, under the direction of the late Wm. Tait, published in 

 Edinburgh, I was not likely to confound fiction with fact whilst 

 prosecuting my researches on the subject. The subsequent evidence 

 of the natives is perfectly correct, and I have little doubt but that 

 the animal's bones are still recoverable. I resided in the Mount 

 Gambier district from 1844 to 1850. 



" I have the honor to be, Sir, 



"Your obedient servant, 



"Wood Beilby. 

 "To the Secretary of the Philosophical Institute." 



" to the editor of the 'herald.' 

 " Sir, 



"I have observed in the various newspapers of the day con- 

 jectures as to the probable cause of the unwitting alteration in the 

 course steered by the 'Admella,' occasioning her proximity to the 

 reefs upon which she has been wrecked. I may suggest a possible 

 cause, perhaps worthy of investigation. Some years ago, I resided 

 in the then newly-settled district adjacent to Mount Gambier, and 

 from the generally monotonous character of the scenery of that dis- 

 trict possessing few prominent land marks, it was then universally 

 the practice of the settlers thereabouts to travel by compass, and the 

 extraordinary variations, and at times incomprehensible oscillations 

 of the compass needle, chiefly in certain bearings amongst the stony 

 rises around the Mount, were a subject of frequent conversation in 

 that neighbourhood. Whether this had or not anything to do with 

 some indications then existing (and recently reported to be again re- 

 curring), that the crater of Mount Gambier was not extinct, but 

 merely slumbering, frequent deposits of pumice, like ashes, then 

 occasionally appearing on the margin of the lake, and not a few ex- 

 traordinary alterations occuring in the extensive limestone caverns of 

 that vicinity, I am not philosophic enough to surmise; but as this 

 fact regarding the variation of the compass, may attract the attention 

 of the institute, I shall mention another relative to the same district, 

 which, unexplained, might on some future survey of some of the 

 wonderful caves in that part of South Australia — (should bones of an 

 animal not yet ascertained as indigenous to any part of the Australian 

 continent, be found in a petrified state in such limestone caverns), 

 greatly nonplus the savans of the day. Some score of years ago, reading 

 in the Advocates' Library of Edinburgh, evidence of a select committee 

 of parliament, relative to the working of 'Secondary Punishments,' 



