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XVI. Description of portions of a Tush of a Proboscidian Mammal . 
(Notelephas* australis, Owen.) 
By Professor Owen, C.B., F.R.S., &c. 
Received Marcia 21,—Read March 30, 1882. 
[Plate 51.] 
The subjects of tlie present communication were discovered by the late Fred. N. Isaac, 
Esq., in a superficial drift-deposit of a ravine in a district of Darling Downs, Australia, 
about 60 miles to the eastward of More ton Bay, and have been submitted to me by 
his nephew, E. Thurston Holland, Esq. 
They are portions of a tusk and indicate a species of Mammal larger than the 
Diprotoclon, consequently the largest aboriginal land Mammal of which any satisfactory 
evidence has, hitherto, reached me from Australia. 
Besides the larger portions of the tusk figured in the accompanying drawing (Plate 
51, figs. 1-8) were many smaller portions or fragments of apparently the same tusk. 
At first sight they suggested evidence confirmatory of that which, in 1843, was 
brought from Australia by Count Stezelecki, —a molar, viz., of a Mastodon, stated 
to have been obtained from a native of the interior of New South Wales, but which 
appeared to lack the grounds for the admission of a Proboscidian into the work e On the 
Fossil Mammals of Australia/ up to the date of its publication, 1877. That molar 
presented the characters of the Mastodon andium of South America, and it is too large 
to be associated with the tusk under description, supposing this to have come from the 
upper jaw of a full-grown individual of its species. I, however, subjoin the Count’s 
notice of the molar tooth.t 
# Noto? south, e\eivory. 
f After alluding to some Marsupial Fossils I also had submitted to me, the author proceeds :—“ To these 
relics may he added a molar * bone 5 (tooth) of the Mastodon, similar to the Mastodon angustidens , and 
provisionally called by Professor Owen Mastodon australis , and which I bought from a native of Boree, 
the station of Captain Ryan, through the agency of the overseer of the station. The natives in giving 
the bone stated that similar ones and larger still might be got further in the interior ; but that, owing 
to the hostility of the tribe upon whose grounds the bones are to be found, it was impossible for him 
to venture in that time in search for more; as, however, he promised to exert himself at some future 
period in order to supply me with some better specimens, I have left a reward with the man second in 
command at the station, and which was to be given to the native on his redeeming his pledge. Should 
5 G % 
