Monday, October 1, 2007

My bunyip family

Most people have heard tales about the mythical Aussie beast known as a bunyip, but sightings have been rare, and scientific research on this creature has been even rarer still. I happen to have a couple of fossilized specimens here at Gamone.

I found both the big oval slab with a "mouth" and the huge "leg" down alongside Gamone Creek when I first arrived here, and I brought them back up to the house. They're hard and heavy: probably limestone that has been washed smooth for centuries by the creek (when there's water in it). As for the baby bunyip, it's a different kettle of fish. It's a piece of white limestone that I unearthed, a few years ago, at the site of the medieval castle at Rencurel... which is no more, today, than a curious mound on the slopes. Here's the other side of the block:

I have the impression that it's a fragment of carved stone that has been washed smooth by running water. In fact, I'm unlikely to ever know what forces created these forms. So, it's less frustrating to decide, once and for all, that they're bunyip fossils. Who could possibly disagree?

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