NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Messrs. Etheridge and David exhibited on behalf of the Govern- 

 ment Geologist, portions of the skeleton of an Aboriginal found 

 by them in an extension of the Pumice bed at Long Bay, near 

 Botany. The bones were reposing in a hollow, 3^ feet x 2^ feet, 

 excavated in a consolidated sand bed, the top of which was much 

 hardened, and had formed an old land surface. With the remains 

 were found two stone implements and some shells, covered by 

 the material excavated from the hollow and a little drift sand, the 

 whole being buried in the blown sand of the Pumice bed at a 

 depth of 3 feet odd. The last-named deposit now forms the 

 present land surface, and supports a vigoi'ous vegetation, the 

 surrounding ground containing stumps of what must have been 

 large trees. The pelvis, leg bones, fore-arm bones, feet, hands, 

 sacral and lumbar vertebrae, and the three lowest dorsal vertebrae 

 were all found, but the remaining portions of the skeleton were 

 wanting. The thickness of the consolidated sand bed in which 

 the hollow had been made varies from 4 to 20 feet, and 

 rests on beds of the Hawkesbury Series, the whole forming a 

 section of 27 feet at the immediate spot in question, presenting a 

 low seacliff at the bottom of the bay. This must have been a very 

 old interment, and is conjectured to be perhaps the earliest 

 remains of man yet found in New South Wales. The subject has 

 been communicated to the Government Geologist in the form of an 

 official report. 



Mr. Maiden exhibited two clusters of the seed-capsules of 

 Eucalyptits pilularis, sessile on the larger branches of a vigorous 

 tree. A large number of such clusters might have been gathered; 

 and Mr. Maiden asked if any members present had met with a 

 similar experience, as this condition was one that he had not 

 previously observed. 



Mr. S. Sinclair exhibited a gold watch found in the stomach 

 of a shark (Galeocerdo rayneri) captured in Port Jackson last 

 January by Messrs. Smith and Ireland. 

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