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THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST.

exeursion to :J3otanie gardens.On Saturday, 11th lhay, members paid. a visit to the Botanic Gardens, to gaininformation as to the many useful andornamental trees from foreign partswhich are growing there.They were lllet at the gates by :!\Ir.'Yardman, and as it was late in the seaHon fo r deciduous trees, attention wasdirected chiefly to the coniferae. Theparty went along the top path above thepond, where there are well-grown specimens of trees on either side. In thispart also were the cedars an d c y p r e s s e ~ ,. and as the party proceeded, several

species of evergreen oaks from ~ orth.c>.merica, and also the clOrk oak, wereseen.Owing to the interest now being takenin flOrestry, interesting discussions were!leld as to the best trees flOr this purpose,and as Ylr. 'Yardman is well up in thissubject, he gave much information, illustrating his remarks from the trees arollndhim.Seeds of manv kinds :were taken bvseveral members of the party to experiment with.

exeursion to Souto ff3ridgewater.On Saturday, 18th May, Dr. Noetlingled an excursion to examine the limestQne quarries at SQuth Bridgewater. Thequarries are aDout lOne mile from therailway statiQn, and in excavating limestQne fQr burning in the kiln the rocknas been cut away to a depth Qf ab Out

30ft., and a fine bed Qf fQssils eXPQsed.'lne fQrmatiQn is Qf slightly inclinedalternating beds Qf limestone and shale,in which there are many fossils, includingSpkifer, IProdu{lt'ils, 'a,u,d ,P,ect

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Rl:J..lCS OF AN EXTINCT RACE. N A ' l ' l V ~ QUARRY ON COAl. HILT. NEAR MET.TON MOWBRAY,SOUTEIERN TASMANiA. P l : o l by Or .N octling. I - Coal Hill, where an AboriKinll1 Q U ( l . r r y i i t u a U d .2- Vie w of the Nati\'o Qllllrry.

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REL ICS Ufo' AN i:XTTNC'C RACE. NATIVE QUARRY ON COAT, lllT,r" NEAR Ml:LTON llWWBRAY,SOU'I'HERN TASMANIA. Photo8 by i)r. Noetling. l-}'ragOleut "howing lark or pcrClluion. Rej ectedby tJI' l Aboriginu . 2- Wel1-ftnished HaudCl,opper. S -Angular Fragment yhowing trn(lOB of n ~ e . 4--AnUnfinished Specimen, ahowing a considero.ble amount or work on each 'lid.e .

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.RELICS OF AN EXTINc'r RACE. NA.TIVE QUARRY ON COAL HILL, NEAR MELTON MO W BRAY.SOUTHEl!N TASMANIA. Photoa by Dr . NoetiiD&,. land 2-WeU-finished Hand-ChopJM,lrs. 3. ' . 5-Knife,8ilowing l'''>llicnl au d inrlical face null side view.

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THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST.,betwen Glenleith and Charlie Hope's estates, near the River Plenty; and agrapMc description of this lQcality WIll!be f,ound in Ling Rotl.'s bOQk Qn thea:boorigines of T a ~ m a n i a (page 149-151).AnQther quarry was diwovered in 1890,i f I am right, by Mr. Harol() Bisdee,{)Tl Coal Hill, near Melton Mowbray, andI subsequently foune) a tMrd one onShene, near PQntville stati,on. 1 haveno. tiJUbt that many mQre natiye quarrieswill be discQvered if a prQper searchis made, but fQr the present very littlein known about their features. The mQstimportant part connected with them hasalready been pointec' Qut by our ve'terangeQIQgist, R. M. J Qhnston. N a t ~ v e quarries are invariab],y situated Qn soon[Milce where the pal!aeozQic mudstQne Qrsandstone has been altered by eruptive(lialbas or basalt. I t is certainly a factthat all quarries hithert{) knQwn aresituated Qn such p l a ~ e s , but it dQes notnl(lessarily follQW that there muSlt also.he a qua,r'ry wherm',e,r such a IQcality is!fQund. On the wlhole, it ii! a gQod!plan when searching fQ'r n a : t ~ v e qUQ,rrie.s,to kep to the cQntad line, between th eeruptive rocks and th e palaeQzQic strain.() m\ it is pretty certain to assume t.ha taft.er a shQrt l ime success will be th ereward. I t is obviQUS that palaeQzQicstrata Qf different nature were ditIelentlyaltered (metamorph1oseiJ) by Jne and tilesame eruptiQn of vQlcanic matter. 'l'hesandstones were turned into a mQre Qrless cQarsely-grained PQrcellanite, whilethe mudstQnes were a,ltered into. the variQus kinds Qf 'S1plintery, silicious chert,cQmmQnly, thQj}gh errQneQusly, calledflint. In a future article I shall havean opPQrtunity to. dwell mQre especiallyQH the petrQgraphi'cal features of th e'l'asmanian amorphlOlithes, as I .have already ascertained SQme very peculiarfacts. AccQroing to. the nature Q,f thealtered rQck we can naturally d1stinguish two. grQUPS Qf quarries, thQsenQm which the altered mudstQnewas obtained, ancl those where the PQr,ctllla'nite wnl3 qUlarried. 'l1he quarry n,earthe River Plenty and that on Ooal Hillare instamces .of the first type, whilethat Qf Shene seems to. be, as far as 1knQw, the Qnly instance Qf the selCQndtype. I t seems that th e qualTY QnCoal Hill is the most important, asfar as extensFon and intensiv,e wQrkg,oes; and a detailed descriptiQn. tQ-gether with that Qf some Qf th e implen;ents fQum], is therefQre of particularinterest. As already stateli, the quarrywas cvlscovered by Mr. Harold Bisdee,ancl subsequently visited by Messrs.John&toon, Morton, and "'0Iker, but, 'except a mote in Walker's paper Qn theTasmanian abQrigines, I Qnly knQw that

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a shQrt account, accQmpanied by a plwtQ-graph, was published in a sQuther\}!weekly journal. I t appellrs that the actual situatiQn Qf tM s quarry was .only'kuown to. th e few persQns mentiQned.and even the weal peQple hardly knewQf its existence when I visiteli MeltQn,MQwbray fQr the first time in 1906. Ltried in vain to. discQver the quarry byfQllQwing the cQntact Qf diabas and mudstQne, but I SQQn fQund Qut tha t i t WQuld,take me many days Qf diligent research to find it . HQwever, Qn enquiry, Mr. Bisclee, on whose prQperty CQal Hill is situ-,ated, kindly supp:1ed the necessary in-,f.ormation, and, guided by this, Mr. NichQls, {)f MeltQn MQwbray, who. knQwsthe country well, c:mld shQW me the'exact IOl!ality. Anybody interested inthis subject caul" CIa no. better than to.cQmmunica te w1th Mr. NichQls, i f he'wishes toO, visit the quarry. CQal Hillis a lQw, fairly thickly wQQded hill, abQut a,mile and a half nQrth Qf the hQtel a t MeltQn MQwbray (see Fig 1 } . A shallQw gullydivides it in a western ana eastern spur,.Qn the crest Qf which the quarry is .situated. I t is a remarkable bit {)ts'cenery, this old quarry. R1ght Qn the'top Qf th e flat hill, in fairly Qpen country, the grQund is cQvered with tl>ousands and thQusan&s Qf angular fragments Qf a blue, hard, and spHnte'rychert. I t almost lQoks as i f the whQlegrQuncl had! lately been cQvered with.freEil rQad metal (see F'lg. 2). This p'c-.tUre sh.ows a view of the native quarryQn CQal Hill. On clQse examinatiQn,sh.allQw holes of about five to. six feet.hi cliiameter will be Qbserveii, having B-low wall Qf debrls heaped al"lound them.I t is evident that these hQles were pro.duced by excavating th e rock. Thethickness OIf the debris streV\\n a,bQut,may be aoout Hft. to 2ft., and its areaaboout 200 to. 300 feet squore. .Ml the,fragments are Qf a ver,y even size -abQut fiv,e inches in l e n g t h ~ t l J , o u g h Qfcourse there are numerQUS smaller fragments, but there are hardly any largerthan six inches. Every specimen wetQQk up shQwed sharp edges, andmQst Qf them shQwed more Qr lessextensive traces of use. The mQst in'teresting feature' Qf th;!e frllg1ments ill.certainly the fad that every one Qfthem, Qf all the thQusands we saw seatterea., hacJ once gQne thrQ'lgh the hands,of a human being. We may also. takei t as certain that al l the specimens wenQW see in th'e picture are either refuseQr specimens that 'brQke while beingshnpecli, 0.1' un!finished implements. Well

f i n ~ g . h e d specimens are very rare, and it .:appears that the abQrigines Clhiefly ex"cavated the raw maiA>rial, and, h'wing } i:wht''''; in l.:ngth.

~ ' i g " . 3, 4, ii, p. 1, \knifp ill,;)w-lllg pollical and indical t . 1 < : ~ all,l;,iue view) - This knife shows by thebr,oken edges that it 1,as been verystrongly used. The pollical face is ver,yeven and :smo'Oth; the inrliCl:;1 hce ebborately chipped>. All t:lese speci:nensprove that an enormous illllount of workhas ae2n 'pent in shaping them, "nd Ifwe ,consider that al l those we n,ow findare rrefnls.e or I'e1jelct,s we, ean only wou'