AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 61 



agency the fragmentary condition of the bones forwarded by Mr. Merry; but 

 further consideration and the securing of a larger collection have caused us to 

 modify this opinion. We also thought that the place where the bones and 

 implement were found was probably once a camp by the side of a lagoon 

 or marsh, but our investigations on the spot led us seriously to doubt this 

 original surmise. In the first place the bones in the patches disclosed were not 

 accompanied by the concomitants of an aboriginal camp, and, more important 

 still, many of the fragments obtained showed unmistakable evidence of the 

 fact that some powerful predatory animal had been at work on them. 



The cuts on the hones described by them differ in shape and 

 length. In shape the shallow surface incisions vary from straight 

 to slightly curved. They give the impression in many examples 

 that the whole surface of the bone was scratched by a sharp- 

 edged or pointed implement. There are, also, infrequent deeper 

 cuts or gashes, V- or wedge-shaped in cross-section, some of 

 which have been made at such an angle that they have removed a 

 sliver of bone from its surface. Most of these they ascribe to 

 the Dingo, the Thylacine, or SareophUus. 



In the Pejark Marsh fragments, the cut most characteristic is 

 a clean one, sloping slightly, in some specimens from 5 to 7mm. 

 wide. In other specimens it is not single but multiple, directed 

 to give the bone a pointed end, as, too, does a diagonal cut. The 

 characteristic cut results in a shallow concavity similar to, accord- 

 ing to them, that made by the carnassial of Thylacoleo, and it is 

 their opinion that most of these cuts have been made by that 

 marsupial. They describe, however, a bone with two cavities, 

 on each side of the bone, one slightly in advance of the other. The 

 curves of these cavities are much smaller than in the other 

 specimens; one particularly seems as if it had been formed by 

 several blows or applications of some instrument, by which small 

 pieces were broken out, leaAung a somewhat jagged edge. From 

 the deepest part of the concavity towards the pointed end of the 

 specimen, the thin outside layer of the bone has been removed and 

 its margin is similarly defined by scallops. The shape of the 

 pointed end, they state, is due to cuts. 



They quote De Vis's statement as to the bone-cutting powers of 

 Thylacoleo and instances where he shows bones exhibiting marks 

 and impressions of its molars. After examining the Pejark 

 1 >ones they were convinced that they were cut by Thylacoleo which 

 had evidently greater power in this respect than is attributed 

 to it by De Vis. 



Most of the T)iprotodon bones obtained by S. R. Mitchell and 

 myself from the Pejark Marsh bone bed exhibit the shallow 

 surface incisions and a few gashes; only one — portion of the 

 diastema — showed a clean, straight cut through bone about 5mm. 



