OCCURRENCE OF A SUBMERGED FOREST. 181 
third peat bed (/) about seven feet below the level of low water. 
The burnt stump in the submerged forest is possible, though 
not certain evidence, of the presence of man. 
Previous to this discovery evidence as to the geological antiquity 
of man in eastern Australia was of a very meagre character. It 
has already been summarised by one of the authors, Mr. R.- 
Etheridge, Junr.! Briefly stated the evidence is as follows :— 
A. Direct.—(1) In New South Wales a human molar tooth, 
more or less fossilised, was found by Mr. Gerard Krefft, a former 
Curator of the Australian Museum, at the Wellington Caves in 
the cave earth, associated with the remains of extinct animals, 
Diprotodon and Thylacoleo.2 There is, however, some doubt as to 
whether this tooth really occurred in sitw in the cave breccia con- 
taining the bones, or whether it may not have been introduced 
subsequently through a crack into the breccia. The Scotch verdict 
of “not proven ” is considered to apply to this case. 
(2) In the Hunter River district, sandstone beds covered by 
about thirty feet of alluvial material are said by Bennett to show 
axe-marks produced by the Aborigines, when grinding their stone 
tomahawks.? These axe-marks, however, need not necessarily 
have been very old, as the Hunter and Paterson Rivers frequently 
change their courses rapidly during floods, and so a bed of sand- 
Stone, which may, previous to a flood, have been exposed in the 
bank of the river at the summer level, may become covered with 
twenty feet or more of alluvium, if during the flood the river 
should suddenly change its course. 
(3) On the Bodalla Estate a stone tomahawk was dug up at a 
depth of fourteen feet, under alluvial deposits, as referred to °y 
Mr. C. 8. Wilkinson.‘ 
_1 Proc. Linn, Boc,, N.S, Wales, VoL v., 1890.—Has man a Geological 
Antiquity i in Australia, pp. 259 — 266. 
ne cela »» P. 263, and Geol. Mag. = L, p. 46 
Cat »P. 261, and Bennett, History of Australian Discovery and 
on, p. 263, (8° Sydney, 1867). 
8 tis on the Geology of New South Wales—Department of Mines, 
yeney, 1887, p. 90. (4° Sydney, 1887, By Authority). 
