discoveries, to find that others have been before us. I think by 
the foregoing remarks I have wandered from my subject, but I 
will now try and remedy the error by leaving town and pro- 
ceeding to Gowrie at once, the great nest of fossil remains. 
Gowrie, the property of George King, Esq., is situated on 
a creek of that name — or, as it was called in olden times, 
Isaacs’ Creek, which rises in the ranges near Toowoomba, and, 
forming itself from a swamp, runs through that place until it 
becomes a fine running creek (now never dry), and empties 
itself into Westbrook Creek, which runs into Oakey Creek, and 
from thence into the Condamine Kiver. The bank of this 
creek, from the Gowrie Junction Bailway Station until it goes 
into Westbrook Creek, is more or less rich in fossils. The 
portion from the junction to the railway bridge, Dalby line, has 
only had a few stray bones found in it, as the black soil there is 
very deep, and, in my opinion, the strata containing the fossils 
are only just now becoming exposed ; but from thence to the 
boundary of Gowrie is very rich. After any ordinary flood, it 
is possible to go out and get a great many specimens. I have 
found specimens of Ma crop o did ce, the most prevalent of late, 
although I have found a few very perfect mandibles of 
1 Vototherium. 
It was in what was called the “ Dog-trap Paddock,” about 
two miles below the head station, that Mr. G. B. King and 
myself discovered the jaw of a Diprotodon , together with the 
foot bones of that animal. _ 
In the same creek I also found a small reptilian jaw, which 
Dr. Bennett pronounced to be Chlamydosaurus , which he 
forwarded to Professor Owen, and had his opinion confirmed in 
the foi lowing letter : — “ The portions of a jaw with teeth are 
“ those of Chlamydosaurus , but of a species with a shorter, more 
“ obtuse and higher head than Chlamydosaurus Kingii. I have 
“ therefore entered it, and shall find a place in some plate for 
“figuring the fossil as Chlamydosaurus Bennettii .” Close to this 
was found a mandible of Thylacoles carnifex. The nature of 
this animal is very much disputed, Professor Owen placing it as 
a Carnivore , but Professor Blower, Krefffc, and others disagreeing 
with him on that point, each having good reasons for their 
opinions. Mr. Krefft, in his Notes on the Mammals of 
Australia, published in the Sydney Mail , says : — “ The supposed 
“ marsupial lion, believed to have been the ‘ fellest of the fell/ 
“ was, after all, a harmless creature, which is proved by his weak 
“ incisors, small canines, and the highly inflicted scooplike angle 
“of the jaw. This animal bruised his food with a formidable 
“'premolar tooth, whereof one was developed in each ramus 
“above and below.” Cuvier’s well-known sentence, about the 
molar of a mammal explaining its character and position in the 
system, failed in this instance. Thylacoles was just three times 
the size of the native Bear. 
