THE PROBLEM OF ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AUSTRALIA 25 
in which, under Plate Il, he mentions ‘‘the 5th metatarsal bone 
of a man (recent).’? Owen, in a letter to Krefft, dated January 
8th, 1870, remarked: ‘‘... the only disappointment was the absence 
of human remains and works; but this is an instructive negative 
fact and accords well with former experience of research in the 
Wellington Caves.’’ Krefft’s more detailed list of fossils, dated 
May, 1870, makes no mention of human bones or teeth. In a 
geological report made in the same year, Professor A. M. Thomson, 
who visited the site with Krefft, said that ‘‘in the caves at Welling- 
ton no vestiges of man, whether in the shape of bones, weapons 
or works of art, have been discovered.”’ 
In another publication, not recorded in the Parliamentary 
Paper, Krefft (1870) referred to the fractured crown of a molar 
tooth, probably human, found in the Wellington caves, and four 
years later (Krefft, 1874) he wrote: ‘‘I have found the fractured 
crown of a human molar tooth in the same matrix as Diprotodon 
and Thylacoleo at Wellington in this colony. Man may there- 
fore have been the contemporary of these animals and also of 
Dromornis.”’ These are apparently Krefft’s only published refer- 
ences to the tooth. None is given in the Parliamentary Paper of 
1882. Krefft’s appointment at the Australian Museum was ter- 
minated in August, 1874. 
Etheridge (1891) re-examined the fragment, which consists of 
about two-thirds of the crown broken off from the remainder of 
the tooth, and wrote—‘that it is the crown of a human molar is, 
I think, beyond much doubt; but to guard against mistake I placed 
the specimen in the hands of Mr. P. R. Pedley,® who corroborates 
Mr. Krefft’s determination.’’ The tooth, though mineralized to 
the same extent as the marsupial teeth, was not in the matrix, and 
Etheridge was not convinced that it came from the bone-breccia. 
He mentioned a recent unmineralized skeleton of an aboriginal 
woman found in No. 2 cave; this is possibly the ‘‘human remains’’ 
recorded by Krefft in 1867. Later, Etheridge (1916) found among 
the Krefft MSS. in the Mitchell Library in Krefft’s own hand- 
writing an explanation of the plates that had been published in 
the Parliamentary Paper referred to above. In explanation of 
Plate 12, Krefft wrote: ‘‘Figs. 3 and 4. Side view, natural size, 
and view from above enlarged of a human molar tooth, taken 
from the solid breccia of Wellington Cave by the writer.’’ Attached 
to these documents is what appears to be a small plan of the work 
going on at the caves under Krefft’s supervision, but possibly 
prepared by the workman in charge, giving depths and details; 
in a footnote to this plan occurs the following remark: ‘‘In a 
9. Pedley was then a leading dentist in Sydney. 
