SKELETON FOUND AT WISEMAN'S GULLY.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1852, 8 September 1874, Page 3

SKELETON FOUND AT WISEMAN'S GULLY.

We hare to record another of those melancholy and puzzling discoveries of human remains which so frequently occur in this colony, where waifs and strays of humanity—having none here to care for them, but probably dear to hearts in the home country-journey in the bush, and die there, or, maybe, are murdered there. A man named James Stratford lives at Wiseman's Gully, in the Shellback Creek, and a few days ago his two boys, when out in the neighbourhood, found a human skeleton in the bush. The spot where the bones were found had been an almost impenetrable thicket of supplejack and undergrowth up to last year, when the place was partially cleared by a fire. The name of the place where the remains were found is " Burgoo Gully." It seems that the boys had not looked particularly at the skeleton, thinking it might be those of a goat, but on Saturday they brought to their father, the skull, with the lower jaw missing. On hearing of the matter, Mr Bullen sent Constable i Grace'to Wiseman's Gully; and he brought the skull to the Police Station. It is, wo believe, that of a European, apparently about middle age, the teeth being sound. Over the left ear there is a large hole in the skull, but whether this has been caused by a blow or by some accident occurring while it has been lying in the bush we cannot determine. The rest of the skull is sound, and this hole is" most conspicuous. From the position in which the ribs were, it would appear that deceased had died lying on his back. Stratford states that he has resided there for six years, and. that ho does not remember of any person being missing in the neighbourhood. About five years ago, there was a store near there, and also a number of miners residing in the vicinity. The only person, we believe, who has been missing for some time is Patrick Kinivan, who disappeared about last Christmas; but from the appearance of the skull brought down by Constable Grace, the remains must have laiu longer than that. Yesterday afternoon, Constable Grace brought the whole of the bones to the Police-station, and from him we gather the following particulars: — Prom the position the bones were in the body must have been lying with the head up hill, and close to a rewa-rewa tree eighteen inches thick, the roots of which had grown over the bones, as some of the bones were jammed between them, and the supplejack roots had grown over them. There was a regular network of supplejacks over the bones, and the undergrowth must have been very thick before it was partially burnt away, nothing could be found after careful search, not so much as a button. The fire may account for the absence of clothing, and the jawbone has been subjected to fire, but Mr Bullen says he has no doubt whoever the mm was his death was a violent one from the immense hole in the side of the skull.