New South Wales. 
103 
pf 289, showing- that the latter is the head-quarters of those 
plants ; and ho reasons from this fact that New Caledonia was at 
some period connected with Australia by means of Norfolk Island 
«iiul perhaps other submerged islands and with Now Zealand and 
{he Auckland Islands. “This hypothesis,” he says,“will explain 
{lie simultaneous presence in lands at present under the itilluence 
of differing climates of species belonging to homogeneous groups, 
which could not by any causes have been transported by special 
currents, and which, living in the mountainous inner regions, are 
less exposed than littoral species to be carried away by exterior 
agents. b 
This hypothesis tallies completely with the possibility of the 
connection I presumed from the evidence ot the supposed 
Pinornis, — which, however, is more strongly confirmed by Trot. 
Owen to be Dromonds, since lie lias examined, in addition to the 
femur from Queensland, a tibia from S. Australia, and the portion 
of aipelvis I sent him from N. S. AVales. 
To the above considerations may be added, that Baron von 
Mueller having examined the plants brought from New Guinea 
by the ITon. AV\ Macleay, E.L.S., shows such resemblances with 
certain Australian species as to confirm M. Fournier's opinion 
respecting the former probable connection of the two great 
islands ; this is properly referred to in Mr. Wilkinson’s paper on 
the Geological Collections of the “Chevcrt Expedition,” previously 
referred to (p. 97.) 
The account of the plants by Baron von Mueller is to be 
found in three parts of a treatise entitled, “ Descriptive Notes on 
Papuan Plants : Melbourne (Nov., 1875, to April, 1876.) 
[Remains of reptiles have also been found both iu N. S. \\ ales and 
other parts of Australia, in Quaternary deposits, as for instance, 
Mcgalania prisca (Owen), a Laccrtian allied to the Varans and 
Lace Lizards of Australia, which had, probably, a length of 25 
feet; and iu the great plains of the Interior bones ot various 
gigantic marsupials, fishes, and reptiles are found bedded in 
black muddy trappean soil ; and on Darling Downs, in Queens¬ 
land, univalve and bivalve shells are found in some eases attached 
to the bones,or deposited over them in a regular scries ot layers 
at intervals of several feet ; and of these shells some are vet 
living in the water-holes of the creeks. These facts arc generally 
known, but it was not till recently that the osseous relics have 
been found in different creeks throughout the whole of the slopes 
and plains at the base of the Cordillera in Eastern Australia ; 111 
Victoria, in South Australia, and North Australia also. Ot 
similar age arc the accumulation of bones in caverns, as at Av cl- 
lington ; at Boree; ucai 
the head of the Colo Elver; at 
Yesseba, on the Macleay Liver ; at the bead of the Coodradigbee 
not far from the head of the Bogan, and in other places. 
