ANNALS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM, No. 6 27 
debris of the molluscan genera Nassa, Tellina, Area, Venus, and of 
other marine organisms. It is, however, extremely doubtful 
whether this alluvial deposit was the real matrix of the fossils, their 
uniformly gray tint is free from ferruginous stains, and their sub- 
stance is densely mineralised. From whatever cause, it has appar- 
ently been found difficult to exhume them otherwise than in a 
shattered condition, and with the very undesirable result that 
connecting parts which, as recent fractures testify, were in place 
when the whole were disturbed by the pick, are now wanting. 
On fitting together all the fragments, which were amenable to the 
process, it became apparent that the largest piece so reconstructed 
was a portion of the skull of a dugong. This appears to be the 
first occurrence known of a Halicore proper in a truly fossil state, 
and it is to be hoped that its stratigraphical provenance will sooner 
or later be definitely ascertained, since any ray of light that can 
be thrown upon the history of this or any other genus of the Sirenia 
is of unusual interest. Meanwhile it is desirable to determine, 
if possible, the specific status of this particular dugong in answer 
to the question which at once rises, whether it is or is not an extinct 
form of its kind. Assuming that the dugong of the Red Sea, of 
the Indian Ocean and of Australian waters, are all three specifically 
distinct (an assumption which is extremely questionable), the 
writer cannot but regret that the Australian animal is the only 
one whose craniological characters are known to him. He would 
therefore decline to discuss the question raised were it not for the 
great improbability involved in a supposition that one of the 
western species, the Indian for example, might at some remote 
time have inhabited Australian seas also, left its bones on Papuan 
shores, and at last contracted its range under pressure of a new 
species evolved from itself or migrating from elsewhere. The 
thing is certainly possible, but too unlikely to invalidate the 
only means left of determining the question — a comparison of the 
fossil with the corresponding part of the skull of Halicore australis. 
The fossil figured on Plate X, consists chiefly of the angular 
hump formed by the deflected premaxillaries, which is so bizarre 
a feature in the foreskull of the dugong. The premaxillaries 
have been broken across in front, about half way up the muzzle, 
the surface of fracture displaying sections of the large enclosed 
tusks. Behind they have broken away at about a third of the length 
of their backwardly diverging processes which form the anterior 
margin of the narial orifice. To the left process is attached, as 
in the recent skull, that portion of the malar which bounds the 
orbit anteriorly ; also remains of the lachrymal bone above it. 
On the oral or inferior surface behind the premaxillaries, the max- 
illary, preserved as far on the left side as the alveolus of the second 
malar, has been reinstated and, adjacent to that point, a portion 
of its malar process has also been restored to its place. A portion 
of a malar is the only fragment remaining isolated. Unfortunately, 
