March 1948 The Queensland Naturalist 
101 
Exceptional instances do occur where he lias retained 
a fossil for some special purpose. 1 lirve drawn attention * 
to the curious history of the holotype of the Cambrian 
trilobite Lyriaspis alroivnsis < Eth. fil.i, a beautiful and 
complete fossil preserved in a fine, flinty chert that was 
chipped to an artifact and carried away from its original 
finding place in the Northern Territory. Recently also, 
in the far west of Queensland, an Ordovician Cephalopod 
{Calhouuocerus sp. now ) was brought to me by an 
aboriginal who found it on the surface of a Cambrian 
limestone some miles removed from the nearest Ordovician 
locality that could yield such a form. This is in the 
territory of the still active Toko Tribe of aborigines. 
Here again there seemed to be a reason : for the specimen 
was a large, regularly corrugated, rotl— like form of very 
striking aspect that easily might have some special cere- 
monial significance. Rut in each of these instances the 
fossil was found not many miles (ten at the most) from 
a likely collecting ground. 
A quite different record recently lias come to light. 
About 11 miles north-east of the township of Coudamine, 
beside the river of the same name, lies the Nangram 
Lagoon. This is a fine sheet of water, overgrown with 
the large red water lily, Xelumbiiun speciosum Willd. 
This is the only known locality south of the tropic where 
this “Chinese lotus lily,” an appetising delicacy for 
the black men. occurs. Apparently for generations this 
lagoon was a gathering place of the aboriginals when the 
seeds of the lily were right for eating; and old residents 
of the district have stated that in the early days the 
blacks would gather there in numbers, feasting on the 
lilies, and then suddenly depart to the bunya-nut feasting 
ground of the Bunya Mountains. As evidence of its 
popularity, the shores of the lagoon arc littered with 
artifacts, and there is a bora ring beside it. 
Mr- J. A. Clift, of Olive Vale, on whose property 
the lagoon occurs, was gathering these artifacts recently, 
and with them he picked up two fossils — a fragment 
containing portion of a Spirifcr and some crinoid ossicles 
(both of Permian type and a worn fragment containing 
an aniui. rnte Mylocei'i :s sp. and Aurclliiw yrt/phacoidcs 
•I. de C. Sow. ' - fossils of the Tambi S< ri s the Albian 
Stage at the top of the Lower Cretaceous . Now the 
=>F. W. Wr-itehouse. ’939 "The Cambrian Faunas of North-Eastern 
Australia Part 3." Mem. Queensl. Mus . IX. (3), p. 204. 
