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Extinct Whales and Wombats: Lake

Mr. Kinmont wrote as follows:- "SIR, "Birksgate, Glenosmond, Adelaide, S.A., August 9, 1893. "Some two months ago a discovery of mammoth fossil bones was made at Lake Mulligan in South Australia, which promises to be of incalculable value to science, and the 'record' discovery of the kind for the century. As the subject is one of world-wide interest, I propose to give you in brief, from my own knowledge and observation, the facts and particulars of the discovery. "Lake Mulligan is situated in the central district of South Australia, and a more apparently uninteresting and forsaken spot than this locality could not be found in the colony. When the famous Australian explorers, Captain Sturt and Mr. John M'Douall Stuart, went north-west from Menindie on the river Darling, in 1844, they 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 country, and the extraordinary heat of the weather. "What a different picture of the past history of this country is brought to light by the recent discoveries! On the sides of these mountains lying between Lake Frome and Lake Torrens must have been grown huge trees, and all around there must have been a dense tropical growth, exceeding in luxuriance the forests of the eastern slopes of the Andes in South America. Every form of life was at that period huge and uncouth. On the grassy plains at the foot of the mountains roamed the Diprotodon, a gigantic animal allied to the kangaroo in its structure and habits, but of the size of an elephant. 184/7/13 "But to return to the recent discovery of the actual bones. The South Australian Museum, represented by the honorary director, Dr. E. C. Stirling, C.M.G., F.R.S., took the matter in hand, and despatched a party of competent men to excavate. These men have now been at work for some four months removing the gravel that buries the bones, and the discovery has been proved to be even greater than was anticipated, and already many new discoveries of the first importance have been made. For the first time in the history of palæontological science the complete skeleton of Diprotodon australis has been made known-this being a huge marsupial considerably exceeding the rhinoceros in size. The bones of this magnificent treasure, in the interests of science, are now in the Adelaide Museum. Remains also of a giant wombat as large as a half-grown bullock, of two or three kinds of gigantic birds equalling the Moa of New Zealand in size, several species of colossal kangaroos, as well as the head of what is undoubtedly a new species of Diprotodon, have been discovered, excavated, and brought to Adelaide. Over seventy different extinct animals and birds, hitherto unknown, are represented in the two thousand bones which have been dug out of the valley at Lake Mulligan. "There can, in fact, be no doubt but that this discovery is the most remarkable one of its kind that has ever been made in Australia, and perhaps in the world. The South Australian Museum, with its limited funds, has done what it could, but with the work only fairly commenced the directors found themselves EXTINCT WHALES AND WOMBATS 307 in the position of having to abandon the search for lack of means to go on. Sir Thomas Elder, however, the distinguished initiator and promoter of Australian exploration expeditions, with his usual liberality to the cause of science, and with a desire to advance the scientific reputation of South Australian work, has come to the assistance of the museum in this matter, and has enabled the directors to continue this most important and extensive work. Dr. Stirling proposes to start for Lake Mulligan himself this week, with a view of personally superintending operations; and there can be little doubt but that work in the future will yield results even surpassing those already made. "I am, etc., "WILLIAM KINMONT."