Miscellanea . 
453 
rather smaller than the Australian fossil, notwithstanding its ad¬ 
ditional tubercles and more backward position in the jaw. 
The Australian fossil tooth here described was brought by a 
native to Count Strzelecki, whilst that enterprising and accom¬ 
plished traveller was exploring the ossiferous caves in Wellington 
Valley. The native stated that the fossil was taken out of a cave 
further in the interior than those of Wellington Valley, and which 
Count Strzelecki was deterred from exploring by the hostility of 
the tribe then in possession of the district. With this circum¬ 
stantial account, communicated to me by Count Strzelecki when 
he obligingly placed the fossil in my hands, and with the previous 
indication of a large Mastodontoid quadruped in the femur 
transmitted by Sir T. Mitchell from Darling Downs, there seems 
no ground for scepticism as to the veritable Australian origin of 
the molar tooth in question, notwithstanding its close similarity 
with the Mastodon angustidens of the European tertiary strata. 
It is partially mineralized and coated by the reddish ferruginous 
earth characteristic of the Australian fossils discovered in the 
Wellington ossiferous caves by Sir T. Mitchell. 
The amount of difference between the Australian molar and 
those of the European Mastodon angustidens , though small, equals 
that by which the molars of the Mastodon Andium are distin¬ 
guished from the molars of the Mastodon angustidens ; and if 
species so nearly allied have left their remains in countries so 
remote as France and Peru, still more if the Mastodon angustidens 
or longirostris formerly existed, as has been affirmed, in North 
America, we need feel the less surprise at the discovery of a nearly 
allied species in the continent of Australia. 
The fossil in question is the crown of an incompletely formed 
molar, with the summits of its mastoid or udder-shaped eminences 
entire, its fangs undeveloped, and its base widely excavated by 
the unclosed pulp-cavity. It supports six principal mastoid 
eminences in three transverse pairs, with a narrow ridge at the 
anterior part of the base of the crown, and a small quadrituber- 
culate talon or basal prominence posteriorly : the three transverse 
eminences are joined together by a pair of small tubercles at the 
basal half of each interspace, placed in the long axis of the 
