The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-06-22
where the Bones OF Extinct Animsls
Have Bees Found.


Have Been Found.
(From John Plummet's Australian Cor
respondence.)
I The Wellington caves in New South
Wales mrs, r.s'''.rkable, not only as being
the frst discovo I'd in the colony, but
also - .-...4r, lie only ones In which fos
sill remains have been found, thereby es-
tablishing their prs-historic antiquity.
The town of Wellington, in the vicinity
OF which the caves are situated, IL In
the western district, about 24s miles
from Sidney, and Is kind OF western
sanatarium, being nearly lJO0 feet above
sea level. on the western margin OF the
southern tableland. The township Is d.
vided into two portions by the waters OF
the Macquarie, and bounded on either
side by ranges Of steep hills, on the high
est point of which INIT. Arthur Is a
cairn OF stones made by Sir Thomas
Mitchell when engaged in the work Of
exploring and surveying this portion Of
the colony
The caves were discovered by Sir Thorn
as Mitchell In 1880 while examining the
| limestones cliffs ON ether side Of the
river. The limestone everywhere pre-
sents a naked and rugged surface, COM
posed of pointed, weather-worn blocks,
between which are SMALL oreyices lead
/ ing to caves and assures. From these
crevfces,' says Sir Thomas Mitchell, "a
warm air ascends, accompanied by a
smell peculiar to the caves. The worn
appearance of the external rock, resemb-
ling half-dissolved ice, is very remar k
able, particularly near the largest cav
/ erns.'' This crevice forming the entrance
to the caves is about 100 feet above the
| river level, and is easily reached by a
well constructed road The principal at
/ traction to the majority of visitors Is the
Great cave. 1t is approached by. steep
/ and rugged opening, and consists OF u
spacious and lofty vaulted chamber, or :
namented by an immense stalactite. The
! passage descends from hence consider
1 able distance, and as the roof begins to
riss the floor is found thickly covered
with loose, dry red earth, which rises in
fine dust at every step In one place, be-
/ hind the great stalactite, the earth Is OF
a white color Here, when the caves
| were first explored, one of Sir Thomas
Mitchell's companions unexpectedly sank
TO the waist, to his great alarm. Passing
| through an opening TO the left of the
.
feet leads to n smaller cavern, with lev
ell floor of dry red earth of considerable
thickness. At the end of this cave furth-
err progress is barred by deep assure, at
the bottom of which Is water Of I'M
! known depth. One remarkable feature
of the two chambers is the massive and
unbroken appearance of the roof and
walls, suggesting the idea that the cham
bers had been excavated out of the solid
rock. The red earth Is supposed 20 be u
sediment deposited by the water formerly
! flowing through the caves.
About so feet to the west of the Great
cave is the Breccia cave, enc OF the
| most important and interesting, from q
scientific point OF view. yet discovered in
| Australia. Ii Is kind of deep pit or
WELL and from its small size and the
difficulty of access Is not much frequent
ed by visitors. The entrance is effected
by means of ladders TO the first landing
place, a depth of II feet. From here a
further descent OF about IL feet is made
between two nearly vertical walls of
rock, landing midway In an Irregular
fissure extending nearly north and south
Crawling hence through narrow tun-
mel in the solid rock, small chamber,
IL feet high, is entered. The floor Is of
red earth, of considerable depth, the up
per portion containing large numbers of
bones. 1t is stated that when Sir Thorn
as Mitchell reached the mouth Of the
/ Breccia cave. one of his assistants, named
Rudkin, volunteered to go down and see
what was at the bottom. He was lowered
by rope, which proved TO be of in
sufficient length. Another rope was
| lowered to him, and this was made fast
to projection in the side OF the pit.
With this aid no began a further descent,
when, happily for science, but unfortu-
nately for Rudkin, the projection to
which the rope had been fixed gave way,
and he was preeipitated to the bottom,
I s,.,tt hi SRI 1y,fr if,An ha aa
lie fell Thinking this TO be thu stone to
which he had fastened the rope, he
picked IL up. and was astnnlshed to find
1t was in reality bone. Subsequently,
the skull of an animal was found, which
the late Prof Owen, of the British mu-
scum, pronounced to be the head of an
enormous kangaroo. 1t (the animal) was
at least 10 feet long and ten 10 feet high
(when erectl ana Its forelegs were much
longer than those of the kangaroo which
we know at present.
Prof. Owen also gave { as his opinion
that there would be found the remains
of a large carnivorous animal, which had
! been contemporary with the gigantic kan
CARGO. his opinion based upon the fact
that the herb-eating marsupial must have
! had a natural enemy. This extraordinary
prediction was subsequently verified, for
/ In 1881 a skull and several jawbones were
| foun I, the teeth being in excellent state
of preservation. These remains were as
certained to be those of n lion of u savage
and carnivorous nature. 1t WAS also a
marsupial, carrying its young in kind
of pouch. Other skulls of the animal
have been found, but complete skeleton
has yet to be obtained.
The late Gerard krefft, who was for
| some years curator of the Sidney muse
UNI, and has left name favorably known
in the world of science, took much inter
est in the work of exploring the Breccia
cave, and under his superintendent
many hundreds of fossil remains were
recovered, not few of which are now
in the British museum. Curioualy
enough, no bones of birds have yet been
found in the caves. The country around
Wellington has yet to be systematically
explored. When this 10 done 1t Is proba-
Bile that further discoveries will be made,
not only of fossils, but also of gold, for
1t was In this neighborhood that McGreg-
or, shepherd, found traes OF the auri-
ferrous metal, long before the finds at
Ophir had attracted public attention, al
though his story was generally discredit-
ed at the time.