EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 305 
appeared a few days afterwards (September 25th), extracts from 
an Australian account of the matter, the South Australian Register 
of August 12th. It seems that only a small portion of the area 
known to contain fossil remains has as yet been explored, and 
there is little doubt that a complete examination will yield 
results even surpassing those already made. 
Mr. Kinmont wrote as follows : — 
“ Birksgate, Glenosmond, Adelaide, S.A., August 9, 1893. 
Sir, 
'' Some two months ago a discovery of mammoth fossil 
bones was made at Lake Mulligan in South Australia, which 
promises to be of incalculable value to science, and the ' record ’ 
discovery of the kind for the century. As the subject is one 
of world-wide interest, I propose to give you in brief, from my 
own knowledge and observation, the facts and particulars of the 
discovery. 
“Lake Mulligan is situated in the central district of South 
Australia, and a more apparently uninteresting and forsaken 
spot than this locality could not be found in the colony. When 
the famous Australian explorers. Captain Sturt and Mr. John 
M’Douall Stuart, went north-west from Menindie on the river 
Darling, in 1844, they came into a great stony desert lying to 
the eastward of Lake Frome, and the party endured the most 
terrible hardships from the frightfully barren nature of the 
country, and the extraordinary heat of the weather. . . . 
“ What a different picture of the past history of this country 
is brought to light by the recent discoveries! On the sides of 
these mountains lying between Lake Frome and Lake Torrens 
must have been grown huge trees, and all around there must have 
been a dense tropical growth, exceeding in luxuriance the forests 
X 
