IIOUN EXPEDITION NAUKATIVE. 57 



From Cull;il»oiiii;i Dr. Stirling l);is alsu lupurtuil lluj occunciiLc uf ;i fossil of 

 .still gifjitor iutcicst in the form <jf a yigautic biid, scniic idea of the sizi' of wliicii 

 wliicli may lie gained from the fact that its skull is some twelvi' iiiehes in length 

 and that the h^iigth of the hin<I leg exceedetl that of the emu liy more than a, foot, 

 whilst th(^ wlioie skeleton is proportionately more massive than that of the lattei' 

 bird. 



Uf the fossil remains of extinct marsupials known from tii<' intei'ior of the 

 continent, the most }>erfect series is undoubtedly that from Lake ( 'alialionna, of 

 which, thanks to the skill and energy of Mi-. Zietz, the i\ssistant Director of tiie 

 South Australian Mu.seum, a beautiful series has been brought down to Adelaide, 

 whert; it is now l:)eing carefully arranged and set up by Mr. Zietz. 



We niay now rt-g.-irtl as fully est.iblished the important conclusion enunciated 

 by the late Mr. Wilkinson, Professoi' Tate and others that, in times immediately 

 preceding the Pliocene and continuing into the latter, t.here was a pluvial period 

 during which the now desiccated areas centering in Lake Eyre, Lak(! Torrens, 

 and L.ake Frome, were cloth<'d with a rich v(!g(!tation, amongst which lived the 

 large extinct marsupi.als and l)irds, the fossil remains of which are found in places 

 such as Lake Callabonn.i or in the Wellington Caves in New Siiuth Wales. 



With tlie gradual desiccation of the interior went hand in hand the extinction 

 of the rich Hora and of the large animals dependent upon it., though there was 

 probably some other cause at work aiding in tlu! extinction of the big marsujiials, 

 because they liecame extinct not only in the centre, where the exti'eme desiccation 

 prevailed, but also in such other parts as Western Victoria, where there is no 

 reason to suppose that the conditions of life, so far as climate was concerned, weie 

 rigorous enough to alone account foi' their dying out. Possibly, as Mr. De Vis 

 has suggested, their extinction was due at all events in large part to some form of 

 senile decay of the race. 



Whilst at Henljury a visit was paid by Messrs. Stirling and Watt to the 

 Chandler Range, lying aljout twelve miles to the north of our camp by the side of 

 the Finke. These hills are composed of Silurian sandstone, and an^ some 1-')U(J 

 feet high. On them, for the first time during the Expedition, was .seen tin; native 

 fig tiee {Ficits platypoda), and the pine {CaZ/ifis verrucosa), Vioth of which were 

 met with after this in abuntlance on all the ranges tVirmed of Silurian sandstones 

 and quartzites, or of still older gmdssic, Pre-Cambrian rocks, as in the njaiu 

 McDonnells. 



