EXHIBITION OF CURIOSITIES

EXHIBITION OF CURIOSITIES.  

AN exhibition of a somewhat novel character was opened yesterday by Mr. Craig, lately from Adelaide, in the upper floor of the Prince of Wales Auction Rooms in King Street. The announcement of the show was certainly an attractive one, the public being invited to step in and see a "petrified blackfellow;" and also some immense stuffed crocodiles. The former of these objects naturally excited the greater curiosity, and during yesterday evening it was inspected by a considerable number of people. There can be no question as to the body being an extremely curious object; but it certainly does not fulfil the expectations raised by the announcement. There is no petrifaction whatever about the body, and it is difficult to understand why it was stated to be in that condition. The body bears considerable resemblance to a mummy, the soft parts of the system being destroyed, leaving entire the tendons and sinews, as well as the skin, - which is of a whity-brown colour, and has no more solidity than an ordinary hide. Portions of the anatomy are gone, but the figure is, for the most part, perfect, and its structure shows it to have been the body of a blackfellow. The place in which the body was found sufficiently accounts for its state of preservation; it had been lying for a number of years in an, extensive stalactite cave, at Musquito Plains, in the South Eastern district, in South Australia, where it had been excluded from atmospheric action, and had been subjected to intense cold and also to the constant drippings from the limestone beds.

Some seventeen years ago, soon after that portion of South Australia was first taken up, a party of blacks murdered one of the shepherds and stole the sheep ; to revenge which an attack was made - upon the natives by the settlers, when several of the former were wounded. It is supposed that one of the blacks fled to the stalactite cave for shelter, and that he died there of his wound. The body is stated by Mr. Craig   to be now precisely in the same attitude as when it was first discovered, and the posture is evidently that of a person who had expired in extreme suffering.  

The circumstances under which Mr. Craig became possessed of the body are rather remarkable, and recently created no small amount of excitement in Adelaide. The body had been allowed to remain on the spot in which it was discovered, and naturally added to the interest of the beautiful limestone formations in the cavern. At length however, Mr. Craig, who had been travelling,through the colonies in search of curiosities, heard of the existence of the body, and determined on adding it to his collection. The country being very wild, and little inhabited, Mr. Craig encountered great hardships in the prosecution of his enterprise, but at length succeeded in obtaining the body and in removing it from the cave, wrapping it round with a blanket and carrying it on his shoulder. Upon arriving at the nearest inn, which was at Mount Gambier, more than seventy miles distant, no little curiosity was excited to know what were the contents of his bundle, and some suspicions being roused, the Crown Lands Ranger obtained from a Magistrate named Dr. Wehl an authority to examine the article, and, upon the contents being exhibited, the magistrate authorised the police sergeant to take it forcibly away from Mr. Craig, -- The result was, that the body was restored to the cave, and guarded by heavy iron bars, in order to prevent its recapture. An action of trover was thereupon brought in the Supreme Court in Adelaide, by Mr. Craig against Dr. Wehl for the recovery of the body. The case, which was tried before Mr. Justice Gwynne, turned of course upon the right of ownership, the Crown Lands Ranger relying upon an Act which forbids persons removing trees, stones, or " other material " from the lands of the Crown, the hardened corpse being considered as " other material." The Judge ruled that the magistrate  had no jurisdiction in the matter, and had no right to interfere between two citizens who were disputing about their property, and the jury gave a verdict of one farthing damages. A report of the trial, which, as might be supposed, was a rather amusing affair, will be found in another column. 

Subsequently, Mr. Craig applied for a new trial, but was unsuccessful. It appears however, that he was determined not to be foiled, and although much vigilance was exercised by the residents in the neighbourhood to guard the recovered treasure, the public in Adelaide were, a few weeks after the trial apprised by telegraph from Mount Gambier, that the body was again missIng and that no traces of the depredator could be discovered. By what means the body was a second time removed from tho cave, we are not aware, but there can be no doubt of its having been brought down to Adelaide and shipped thence as merchandise for Sydney. " We understand that a large 'reward has been offered by the Adelaide Government for the recovery of the body, but we do not apprehend that while in this colony Mr. Craig's treasure will be liable to seizure.

Besides the body of the aborigine, Mr. Craig exhibits some stuffed crocodiles. Two years since, while residing on the Fitzroy River, in Queensland, Mr. Craig carefully studied the habits of the amphibious monsters that abound in that river, and, after several ineffectual attempts, succeeded in obtaining two splendid specimens. Having ascertained the seat of the brain of the crocodile, he fired hammered iron bullets into it, and managed to secure the bodies and to stuff them. One of the crocodiles is between ten and eleven feet long, and the other is nineteen feet long. There is also shown the skeleton of a crocodile which Mr. Craig killed by shooting in the spine.

The exhibition will, we understand, remain open to the public for several days. We may mention that Mr. Craig attends at the exhibition, and relates to visitors a number of interesting particulars in reference to the body of the blackfellow, and also to the ferocious animals he has succeeded in capturing and preserving.

The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday January 1862