from Mount Maccdon . 
34 5 
rative anatomist observes—“ Every specimen except 1498 and 
1502 belong demonstratively to the large marsupial Pachyderm, 
first indicated in Major Mitchell's Expedition, Vol. 2, page 362, 
plate 31, (of the first edition) under the name of Diprotodon , sig¬ 
nifying two incisors, a genus which 1 regard as having an affinity 
to wombat, and which affinity appears to be demonstrated by the 
calcaneum from the Condamine River, transmitted to me by Sir 
T. Mitchell about a year ago, together with portions of jaws and 
teeth of Diprotodon . The molar dentition agrees with that of 
Macropus , and the form with Tapirus and Dinotherium , so that 
the Diprotodon is one of the most interesting forms that has yet 
been rescued from the great devourer of all things. I trust you 
may be able, through Mr. Mayne and other energetic collectors, 
to obtain the material for a complete restoration. 
You will perceive also, in the description of Nos, 1505 and 
1509 the evidence of an allied genus. I never had a fossil bone 
which excited my interest more than 1509.” This fossil bone 
was an astragalus of a new genus he has called Nototherium 
inerme . He then goes on—“ the astragalus, of most assuredly 
a marsupial animal, as large as a rhinoceros, yet quite distinct 
from kangaroo, and most like wombat. Depend upon it your 
alluvial or newer tertiary deposits are the grave of many creatures 
which have not been dreamt of in our philosophy.” 
Since I last wrote you (see Tasmanian Journal No. 9, p. 311) 
I have heard of two other extensive bone deposits, one near Lake 
Carangamite, and the other on the banks of the River Goulburn. 
I have received a specimen of the distal end of one of the meta¬ 
tarsal bones of some large animal from the former locality. The 
fragment is completely fossilized, and from a hard clay cliff on a 
salt lake beyond Lake Colac. The same person found a large bone, 
a femur, eight or nine inches in diameter at its upper end, and four 
inches in the middle of the shaft. I have no doubt we shall, by 
and by, find associated with the bones of lierbivora the remains 
of some rapacious animals. 
The following passage occurs in the Athenceum of October 19, 
1844, in an account of the proceedings of the British Associa¬ 
tion, at their last meeting at York : 
