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enumerate half or perhaps a quarter of those living on our coast, 

 but it was a great help. From that day it may be said the work 

 of classifying our rocks was begun in a systematic manner. I 

 refrain from referring in detail to what was effected by the 

 Victorian Geological Survey, or by Professor M'Coy in the 

 Exhibition reports, or my own paper before the Geological Society 

 of London in 1859. Mr. Selwyn, in his report of the Geological 

 Survey of the Cape Otway district, made the first attempt at the 

 classification of the tertiary deposits of Victoria, but the paleeon- 

 tology was not attempted until the publication of the * Decades, ' 

 by Professor M'Co}^, some years later. I had described a few 

 species of Brachiopoda and Echini with some Pectens in the 

 Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Adelaide in 1865, 

 but the number of copies printed was so small that they were 

 scarcely known out of the Colony, and many of my species were 

 redescribed by foreign authors. Dealing with the Echini was 

 especially difficult. The whole class was in much confusion until 

 the ' Eevision ' of Agassiz appeared, and even then our Australian 

 species were not known. In 1866 I published for the Government 

 of South Australia an essay on the classification of the whole 

 tertiary deposits. My idea of the age of the beds was founded 

 less upon palteontological considerations than upon the position 

 of the beds with reference to more recent deposits. In some 

 respects m3 suggestions have not been generally accepted, and 

 now that I am in possession of better evidence I am not inclined 

 to insist on them. In 1870 Professor P. Martin Ducan undertook 

 to review the whole question of the age of our tertiary beds. His 

 essay appeared in the journal of the Geological Society, and was 

 of a most finished and elaborate character. His knowledge of 

 the position of the beds was derived from Mr. Selwyn's reports, 

 but, as is usual with those not familiar with the country, he 

 confused many widely separated formations, and made no 

 geographical distinction between Mount Gambler, in South 

 Australia, and Hamilton, in Victoria, places more than 100 miles 



