256 T. S. Hart : 



sides of them. Most probably they stand above it. Mt. Doran 

 stands up well above the level of a flat ledge on its east side. 

 On this ledge are the Lai Lai iron ores, but recent deep valleys 

 running down to the Moorabool have reduced both ledge and 

 iron ores to a series of fragments. Probably the ledge repre- 

 sents the peneplaiin level. Mt. Egerton may be similar to Mt. 

 Doran. 



The great volcanic plains are subsequent to the elevation and 

 partial dissection of the peneplain. 



As to age, it appears most reasonable to assign the pene- 

 plain to the long continued Mesozoic denudation reaching its 

 final condition at the commencement of the Cainozoic. The 

 oldest of the fluviatile deposits on its surface, commonly called 

 the oldest gold drift, afford no fossils, but on field evidence both 

 on the Moorabool and at Stawell. they are to be regarded a^ 

 equivalents of some part of the Barwonian series in the marine 

 beds, and probably of its lower part. J- 



The older volcanic Rocks in many parts of Eastern Victoria 

 bury la,custrine deposits with fossils of early Tertiary age. 

 The Older Volcanic has been shown to be Barwonian by Messrs. 

 Haill and Pritchard,- and it appears to occupy in some cases 

 positions which are practically level with the peneplain as if it 

 had flowed in and filled the earliest valleys of the first stages 

 of elevation. 



The elevation which stojjpod the formation of the peneplain 

 and introduced a new period of deep valleys, may not have 

 been simultaneous in all parts of Victoria, nor was it without 

 interruption as is seen by the advance of the marine deposits 

 over fluviatile at the Welcome Rush, Stawell,^ and by oscil- 

 lations of level pi'oved in the marine tertiaries. 



The folding of the old sediments and their invasion by the 

 granitic rocks had long ceased before the formation of the pene- 

 plain. But unequal movements were no douljt still in progress 

 through the Mesozoic period. The Mesozoic rocks occur in defi- 



1 N. Taylor, Report on tlie Stawt-U (JoldfKUl. Pi-o;.;ress liepoit Geol. Sur\ . Vic, II. 

 and III. 



2 Hall ami Pritcliaid, " Tln' Older Tcrtiarii'S of MaiuU', etr." I'roc. Kin. Sue. Victoriii, 

 VII., New Seii'-s, 1S',«. 



3 N. Taylor, lot-, cit. 



