EXISTING- SPECIES OF THE GENUS PHASCOLOMYS. 
pinching of the twine ; he whizzed with all his might, kicked and 
scratched most furiously, and snapped off a piece from the elbow 
of Mr. Bass’ coat.” To those who are acquainted with the animals 
in their living state, the idea of Bass carrying for a mile, apparent } 
with ease, a full-grown female specimen of Phascolomys ursinus 
(as at present recognised) which does not usually weigh much less 
than 50 lbs., is suggestive of some mistake having been made in this 
account. It would take a very strong man to hold and cany a full- 
grown Tasmanian wombat if it behaved as Mr. Bass’ specimen did. 
i.e., “ whizzed with all his might, kicked, and scratched most furiously. 
By some curious error, either Bass or Collins confused the account of 
the wombat with that of some other animal in regard to the teeth. 
Towards the close of his description, which is otherwise quite correct, 
Collins wrote — “ The opening of its mouth is small ; it contains five 
long grass-cutting teeth in the front of each jaw, like those of the 
kangaroo : within them is a vacancy of an inch or more ; there 
appear two small canine teeth of equal height with, and so much 
similar to, eight molars, situated behind, as scarcely to be distin- 
guishable from them. The whole number in both jaws amounts to 
twenty-four.” The description is accompanied by a drawing of the 
animal, which is quaint but unmistakable, and bears a strong re- 
semblance to, though it is much larger than, Bewick’s figure. The 
style of drawing and curious pose of the animal, the position of the 
front and hind legs and of the head — all of these are identical in 
the two illustrations. We think there is very little doubt that they 
were drawn by the same hand. There is no evidence that any white 
man, up to that time, had ever seen the mainland wombat — all that 
they knew was that a similar creature did exist in New South Wales. 
In neither Bewick’s nor Collins’ account was any scientific name 
applied to the animal. 
During the years 1800-1804, the celebrated French expedition 
under the command of Baudin was engaged in exploration around 
the coast of Australia and Tasmania. 
One of Baudin’ s ships, the Naturaliste, sailed for Europe in 1802, 
parting from the other two ships, the Geographe and Casuarina, at King 
Island. The Naturaliste carried to Europe specimens of the wombat, 
which presumably came from King Island, though this is not defi- 
nitely stated. In 1803, E. Geoffroy published a preliminary de- 
scription* of the animal brought to Europe by the Naturaliste , and 
proposed the generic name of Phascolomys. Evidently he was quite 
unacquainted with the works of Bewick and Shaw, but had seen 
Collins’ account, because he says that the animal described by Bass, 
“ a le porte de nos nouveaux animaux : mais il en est bien certainement 
different, si les observations qui out ete publiees sur leurs dents sont 
exactes.” He adds, “ Ils out ete trouves a la cote occidentale de la 
* Annates du Museum d'Ustoire naturdle, Vol. 2, 1803, p. 364. 
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