AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 4') 



existence, when they were formed, of a swamp-flora flourishing in 

 a climate with moderate rainfall; on the other hand, when the 

 yellow clay was deposited these conditions did not exist and no 

 carbonaceous matter was found in it. 



In 1908 Spencer and Walcott (1911) made an excavation near 

 where Merry reported his find in search of implements but found 

 none. The succession passed through confirmed that reported by 

 Merry. 



With the same object in view, it was decided to seek the permis- 

 sion of the Shire of Camperdown to put down a hole near Merry's 

 original site. Mr. Roomy, the Shire Engineer, instructed Mr. 

 Blackburn to do this for the Museum. The site selected was in 

 the drain on its northern sloping hank on its south side, a few- 

 yards from the old culvert and between it and the new one over 

 which the stock-route passes. 



The hole for the Museum was put down early in 1947. Except 

 that the thickness of the beds varied, the succession confirmed 

 that given by Merry and Spencer and Walcott and shown in the 

 composite section (Fig. 5). At the bottom of the black clay, the 

 bone-bed was passed through and in it a molar, a lower incisor, 

 and part of the diastema of Diprotodon australis (Owen) were 

 found. Elsewhere, the writer (1945) has placed the Diprotodon 

 bed of Grayson and Mahony above the Hampden Tuffs but here 

 it is, at least apparently so, below part of them. In the lower 

 layers of the tuff itself numerous examples of the reed (Hadium 

 tetragonwm (Lab.), the black, square Twig Rush, were identified 

 by J. H. Willis, of the National Herbarium; their presence had 

 been previously noted by Walcott (1919). Pressed against the 

 bedding-planes, their method of preservation suggests that they 

 had been flattened under successive accumulations of tuff, and 

 although the explosions responsible for the bed of tuff occurred 

 over a relatively short interval of time, they were spasmodic. 

 In one of the lower layers of tuff a fossilized insect larva was 

 found; this was identified by A. N. Burns, Entomologist to the 

 National Museum, as approximating to ().i//c<iiihs fiisroniactdiitus 

 Walk. It was replaced by a fungus also identified by Mr. Willis 

 as Cordyceps cf. lavarum Olliff, the mycelium of which permeated 

 its tissue and facilitated fossilization. During the accumulation 

 of the tuff, the swamp-depression, although damp — the reeds 

 evidence this — apparently seldom held up water. To permit of 

 the metamorphosis of O.ri/ctnitts, the floor of the swamp must have 

 been exposed in May and June, at present wet months in this 

 region; the loose aggregation of the tuff seemingly made it ex- 

 tremely porous. 



