57 
Sept, i, 1885.] The Australasian Scientific Magazine. 
flats in the immediate neighbourhood, and which becoming burnt out on 
the tops of the hills has left deep funnel-shaped cavities now full of water. 
Many of these elevated depressions are still filled with peat, and the 
margins covered with a dense ti-tree scrub. Several large caverns exist in 
the neighbourhood within a mile of where the bones were found, and it at 
first suggested itself to me that this might have been the bottom of a cave 
into which the superincumbent m iss of boulders had fallen; but as all these 
caverns are of a limestone formation, no trace of which existed near the 
bones, I abandoned the idea ; besides, the surface of the ground was not 
depressed as if there had been a collapse. It is much to be regretted that 
no notice was taken of my discovery. I am also sorry I did not retain some 
portions of the bones. Had enquiries been made by scientific men 
instanter, a further search might have been instituted, and possibly much 
valuable information obtained. Immediately below where the bones were 
found the boulders commenced again, and continued until we reached the 
spring, which was at a depth of twenty-three feet from the surface. That 
the whole of this portion of the western district was in a condition of very 
active volcanic disturbance there can be little doubt, and I am sure few 
parts of Australia would have repaid Mr. Taylor’s investigations better. In 
the neighbourhood of Tower Hill the volcanic ash can be observed in 
distinct layers where the road has been cut through hills, each successive 
deposit well defined, evidencing considerable periods of quiescence 
between the eruptions, as likewise the difference in the composition of the 
cinders of each layer. The question arises are these volcanoes for ever 
silent, or may we look forward to renewed activity, not in our time let it be 
hoped ; yet I believe we are with our flocks and herds, pasture, and corn 
fields but forming another stratum of soil to be again covered with molten 
lava, forming new fields of research for future geologists and philosophers. 
LINKS IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 
BY 
HEYKIM NABI COSMOS. 
The Swatherium is a connecting link between Ruminants and Pachy- 
derms. 
The Mastodon and Megatherium , when examined microscopically, are 
modelled after the type which we see in our domestic quadrupeds, and in 
man himself. The gigantic Pachyderms of Australia were between the 
Mastodon and Dimotherium. 
b 2 
