AUSTRALIAN CURIOSITIES

AUSTRALIAN CURIOSITIES.

{From the Yeoman.}

I find in a late number of the Field an extract, as given below: — ''Australian Curiosities. — On view in the International Bazaar, opposite the Great Exhibition, astounding marvels from Australia! The petrified native black man, from the Mammoth Stalactite Cave, Mosquito Plains; no other known in the world; and the most gigantic crocodile leviathan ever seen, 200 years old, captured by the exhibitor, after long and dangerous toil, in the tropical regions; also, a crocodile egg and skeleton. No better evidence of the astonishing rarity of these marvellous wonders need be adduced than the immense excitement they created in Australia, the newspapers, and Courts of Law — Mr. Craig, well known in the new world as the crocodile-killer and explorer, having had a long and severe contest with the Government and other authorities for possession of the greatest of all natural curiosities of ancient or modern times, a petrified aborigine! " The above notice having been kindly forwarded to me by the editor of the Field, I immediately visited the exhibition, and now beg to report upon it. The petrified native black man is simply the body of some unfortunate Australian native, who years since retired into a limestone cave and there lay down and died, lie was most likely wounded when he went into the cave; his position and the features indicate this, and a mark of an incision in the throat, which may have been the cause of death, is pointed out. The body is not in any sense of the word petrified; it is simply hard and dry, exactly in the state of the hedgehogs, weasels, &c, we see on barn doors. The leviathan crocodile is certainly a very fine fellow, 18ft. long, and the history of his capture in the Fitzroy River, Queensland, Australia, is given by the exhibitor. I have asked Dr. Guntber to kindly examine and tell me to what species this beast belongs, as I was not till now aware that crocodiles were found in Australia. They do not, I believe, exist on the west coast, but are found on the east coast. The proprietor (Mr. Craig) tells me that he has had much difficulty in getting his specimens over, for he had not only a terrible fight with the Australian crocodile upon the interpretation of the law of habeas corpus, but he had also a dire combat on the same point with the Australian lawyers, for they applied the Habeas Corpus Act to him personally, declaring that he had no right to take possession of the 'corpus' of the Australian native. However, he won his lawsuit, his dried native, and a farthing damages at the same time. He now hopes to gain many farthings by the exhibition of his curiosities, and I wish him luck.

— F. T. Buckland, 2nd Life Guards. 

Happening to have been at Rockhampton, in Queensland, at the time the said crocodile was found floating on the water of the River Fitzroy, I know something about the matter. The crocodile was supposed to have been shot by a party of Germans, who had gone up, the river above the town to a place where such animals used then to be often seen. Some days afterwards a crocodile was found floating in the river, and taken possession of by the person who is here described as "well known in the new world as the crocodile-killer and explorer," which is simply absurd nonsense. There are plenty of crocodiles on the east, north, and west coasts of Australia, within the tropics. On the north-west coast, A. C. Gregory's party found them dangerous neighbours to the horses of the expedition, two of which were attacked and terribly wounded by these monsters' as they were feeding on the margin of a tidal creek. It is a matter of no moment to these creatures whether the water is salt or fresh, but I think they prefer freeh water. This may be because there animals venturing forward to drink supply them with food. 

-An Old Bushman

South Australian Register Monday 17th November 1862