204 ABOUT HANDS. 



The kangaroo and man each independently struck out on a special line of evolution by keeping 

 their hands on their fore limbs while developing feet on their legs. 



The track of the wallaby is represented by pairs of broad arrows with here and there a brush 

 between, where the tail swept the ground. From this print the wallaby appears to have three toes, 

 but an examination of its foot shows a big toe in the centre and a small toe on the outside, while on 

 the inside corresponding to the outer, are two little toes in a bundle together which act and print like 

 one. The thumb has been lost, so the two little toes wrapped up together, represent the second and 

 third of an original five-toed foot. The reason why these little toes are wrapped up together is because 

 in the long ago the wallaby's ancestor used to climb trees, as its relation, the native bear, still does. 

 Like the native bear, it used to cling to the branches with five toes, two on one side and three on the 

 other. So in the tree-kangaroo, we have an animal whose immediate ancestors lived on the ground 

 like other kangaroos, but whose remote ancestors lived on trees, and there acquired the " syndactyl " 

 foot. Before that again, their ancestors had once lived on the ground. 



THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM.-ITS ORIGIN. GROWTH AND WORK. 



A lecture dealing with the history of this institution was delivered in the Museum Lecture Hall on 

 ioth June, iqiq. by the President of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Thomas Storie Dixson, Ch.M. The 

 lecture was freely illustrated with lantern slides and specimens. He traced the origin of the institu- 

 tion back to 1827, its name being then the Colonial Museum ; although the name Australian Museum 

 occurred as a suggestion in 1828, it was not until 1835 that it came into definite use. The succession 

 of Curators, Dr. George Bennett, Rev. William Branwhite Clarke, W. S. Wall, Dr. S. R. Pittard, J. L. 

 Gerard Krefft, Dr. E. P. Ramsay, and Kobert Etheridge, jr., and their special activities were dilated 

 upon, and the gradual building up of the fine collections with the expansion of the galleries for their 

 accommodation concisely related. The lecture has been printed in pamphlet form by the Trustees 

 of the Australian Museum. 



