The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-10-06
MANY LOST ANIMALS.
OVER SEVENTY NOW EXTINCT
KNOWN BY THEIR FOSSILS.

Supply of Bones Leads to Some Interest
ing and Suggestive Speculations Relat-
ing to Early History.
The surprises experienced in the study
of this fair volume which we world do
name are inexhaustible, and it often
happens that in the most unexpected
places discoveries of incalculable value
to science are made. Such at least is
the case in regard to the wonderful find
of mammoth bones, of which accounts
have been received from Mr.. Hurst and
his companions, who were sent to Lake
Mulligan by the museum board. A
more apparently uninteresting and for
saken spot than this locality could not
be found in the whole of Australia.
When Captain Sturt, along with DR..
Browne and Mr. John McDougall Stuart,
went northwest from Menindie on the
River Darling in 1884, he came into a
great stony desert lying to the eastward
of Lake Frome, and the party endured
the most terrible hardships from the
frightfully barren nature of the coun-
try and the extraordinary heat of the
weather.
In such a country it was only too plain
that no living being could exist and in
deed the utter absence of life in any form
was one of the weirdest characteristics
of the whole region. Lying between the
Grey range on the east and with Mount
Searle, Mount Freezing, Mount Hopeless
and other eminences on the west, this
stony desert contains many dreary salt
pans, and of these Lake Mulligan is one
of the principal. Sturt got to about the
middle of the plain and found the coun-
try so utterly forbidding and lifeless
that he reluctantly retraced his steps
once more to the haunts of civilization
where he gave such disheartening ac-
count of his travels that for many years
it was currently asserted that the whole
of the interior of Australia consisted of
one vast stony desert, in which it was
scarcely possible that any living thing
could exist.
What q different picture of the past
history of this country is brought to
light by the new discoveries! Mount
Searle, which rises to height of 5000
feet above sea level and forms the Gull
minating point of the range between
Lake Frome and Lake Torrens, was
probably at the period Of which we speak
fully twice that elevation. On its sides
grew huge trees, and all around there
was dense tropical growth exceeding
In luxuriance the forests of the eastern
slopes of the Andes in South America.
Every form of life ON the whole earth
was at that time huge and uncouth. The
wombats, of which the bones have now
been unearthed. were as large as bull
locks. On the grassy plains at the foot
Of the mountains there roamed the di-
protodon, gigantic animal allied to the
kangaroo in its structure and habits, but
of size between a rhinoceros and an ele-
plant.
Of very farreaching significance is
the story which is told by these mute
relics of a remote age. 1t has often been
observed by naturalists that the types Of
animals from which, in distant geolog-
ical periods, the existing fauna of Aus
tralia and of America have been derived
present strange correspondence. CT at
dissimilarities no doubt may be point ID
out, but on the other hand the resem-
blances are much greater than, for in
stance, can be made out with regard to
the existing animals Of Australia and
Of Africa. 1t would seem as if, in fact,
some of the species of animals now in
no bi+ipu South ,,o,.ica no "A hao,, o,,o1,yo1
from the same original types as those of
Australia. Marsupial or pouch bearing
animals are to be found on the other
as well as on this side of the Pacific. The
types are different, but sufficiently akin
to denote a common ancestry. Where,
then, may we look for the traces Of those
animals which were the progenitors Of
the fauna Of both sides of the Pacific
ocean?
A probable answer is now being sup
piled through the conjecture that within
q comparatively recent geological period
there existed great Pacific continent.
The sea has covered almost the whole Of
its vast area, and only few Of its noun
tain peaks yet exist in the form of islands
dotting over the surface of the great
peaceful ocean. Whether man was on
the earth at any time during the period
of the existence of this continent must
probably remain a moot point, but the
existence of remains of buildings on some
of the Pacific islands resembling those of
the race who preceded the Aztecs of
South America has been pointed to as a
proof that such was the case.
At the remote time when the bones Of
these newly discovered marsupials were
instinct with life it would seem most
likely that the higher portions of Aus
tralia formed the outlying peninsulas or
islands of the Pacific continent, and per-
haps the line of the present Lakes Frome,
Mulligan and Gregory was the shore Of
a large sea, from which clouds would be
formed by evaporation and condensed
in the form Of rain. In no other way
can we account for the existence on the
slopes of the ranges of Mounts Freezing,
Scare and Hopeless of such gigantic veg
citation as would be required to sustain
the monstrous fauna of those days. I'M
agination stands appalled, at the effort to
conceive the vastness of the time which
has elapsed since these forms of animal
life became extinct. Yet, as Hugh Miller
once remarked: "What mere beginning
of geological history does not the epoch