1855.] CLARKE FOSSIL BONES IN AUSTRALIA. 405 



4. On the Occurrence of Yossii, Bones in the Auriferous Al- 

 luvia of Australia. By the Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., 

 F.G.S. 



In a pamphlet published by me at Sydney in 1851*, I mentioned 

 the fact, that the gold-alluvia of New South Wales contained osseous 

 reliquiae of extinct animals, and I quoted a private letter from San 

 Francisco, dated 23rd February 1850, showing, that bones of extinct 

 animals have been also found in the gold-alluvia of Californiaf . The 

 inference was, that, in this respect, there is a resemblance in the 

 alluvia of the two countries. These facts were, I believe, first men- 

 tioned by myself; for, though it was known long before, that the 

 alluvia and caverns of New South Wales contained numerous remains 

 of extinct animals, no one had before ascertained, that in some 

 localities these remains had been accumulated in the bottoms of 

 creeks contemporaneously with gold, before much of the materials 

 forming the present banks of those creeks had been deposited. In 

 1853 I received direct information from Professor John B. Trask, of 

 California, confirming the facts stated in the private correspondence 

 above-mentioned, as to the manner in which the extinct mammalia 

 of that State have been exhumed by the gold-diggers north of the 

 Consumnes and the Tuolumne. He bears testimony also to their 

 occurrence in that district, in his *' Report on the Geology of the 

 Sierra Nevada" (p. 11), 1853. 



Interesting to the Society as, I presume, such well-authenticated 

 facts must be, the following section of one of the auriferous localities 

 on the Turon River, New South Wales, will illustrate them ; espe- 

 cially as this locality is on the plateau or table-land above the river, 

 at the head of a creek descending to it. It will be seen, that the 

 diagram (p. 406) offers some points of resemblance also to that which 

 illustrates the occurrence of auriferous alluvium with Mammoth 

 remains at Berezof, at p. 478 of Sir R. Murchison's * Geology of 

 Russia and the Ural Mountains.' 



The bones are partly decayed, the interior cavities filled with 

 greenish clay, effervescing' with acids, which also surrounds the 

 larger fragments. They appear to have been partially decomposed 

 before they were imbedded in the gold-bearing stratum. They 

 adhere strongly to the tongue, and in some instances are easily pul- 

 verized by pressure. Their presence would imply, that the gold in 

 this deposit was collected at a comparatively recent date. As the 

 bones appear to be similar to those which are found in the banks of 

 the creeks on Darling Downs to the northward, where shells of living 

 species, now inhabiting the same creeks, are attached to the bones, 

 the period of the accumulation of the gold on Wattle Flat was 

 certainly at no very ancient geological period. 



* " Plain Statements and Practical Hints respecting the Working of Gold in 

 Australia." 



t [For a Notice of the Gold District of Upper California, see Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. X. p. 308.] 



