250 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



tertiaiy beds of Victoria is exhibited on the coast west of Cape 

 Otway, a headhind situated south-west of Port Philip Bay. 



The cliffs on that coast exhibit for the most part a monotonous 

 continuation of false-bedded, somewhat irregularly stratified, but 

 more or less horizontal calcareous sandstones of post-pliocene 

 age, capped by sand-dunes of very recent date. At irregular in- 

 tervals, however, the subjacent strata make their appearance, as 

 patches which have escaped the destructive denuding action which 

 has swept away almost the whole of these formations, and has 

 formed the trough in which the false-bedded sandstone was de- 

 posited. 



He stated that the tertiary deposits were accumulated in a 

 trough of mesozoic carbonaceous sandstone between Castle Cave 

 and Cape Otway ; the tertiary beds vv^ere afterwards contorted and 

 then denuded ; and the trough, now deeper and probably nar- 

 rower, was refilled with the post-pliocene false-bedded sandstone. 



On the eastern shore of Port Philip Bay the series is even more 

 diversified. It is also of peculiar interest, as Professor M^Coy 

 regards certain of the strata on this side, near Mount Eliza, at 

 Schnapper Point, as belonging to the upper eocene period. So 

 far, however, as his investigation had gone, it had afforded no 

 good evidence in support of this opinion. At the same time it is 

 extremely difficult, at the outset, to decide what characters would 

 entitle an Australian deposit to be regarded as eocene. Nummu- 

 lites had not yet come under his observation, and the shells have 

 too recent a facies for an eocene fauna, although some of the 

 volutes do recall the species of the Bracklesham beds, and those 

 of the German oligocene deposits. 



RECENT GEOLOGICAL CHANGES IN CHINA. 



Mr. Albert S. Bickmore, in the ** American Journal of Science " 

 for March, 1868, contributes an article on the above subject. The 

 following is an abstract of a portion of the article : — 



According to Father du Halde''s description of China, compiled 

 about 1725, the city Chantsien (the capital of Corea in 1694), 

 where Kipe (the King of Corea at that time) resided, is the terri- 

 tory of Yungping fu, a city of the first order in the province of 

 Pechui. 



Now, supposing this to be true, one may reasonably conclude 

 that the ancient Chantsien and Corea were contiguous, and not 

 separated by a gulf till many ages after. For it is not to be im- 

 agined that a prince would fix his residence out of his dominions, 

 especially if divided from them by a wide sea. 



In entire accordance with Father du Halde's statements, every- 

 where there appear evidences of a recent elevation above the sea. 

 A consideration of the charts of the Gulf of Pechili and the Yel- 

 low Sea farther show that the true eastern border of this plain is 

 not the present sea-shore, but that this plain continues out under 

 the gulf and under the Yellow Sea, on the north to Corea, and on 

 the south of Shantung even to the Japanese Islands, the Lew 



