Eocene Strata of the BcUaruie Peninsula. 19 



ui(ia are clearly of the same age as the typical eocenes of Muddy 

 Creek. The plant beds then must come in, either at the base of 

 the eocene series, or may possibly be even of cretaceous age. 



Professor Tate has already indicated his discovery in South 

 Australia of beds containing plant remains, which were orginally 

 leferred to Miocene age, occurring in conjunction with marine 

 Cretaceous fossils, giving us a somewhat parallel case to the 

 famous Laramie Beds of North America. In the vicinity of 

 Adelaide, beds containing carbonaceous matter are also known to 

 occur directly underlying the Eocene Tertiary as proved by the 

 Adelaide bore. 



Plant beds are extensively developed in New South Wales, and 

 AVilkinson* states that they show "a perfect resemljlance to the 

 L<5wer Miocene leaf beds of Bacchus Marsh in Victoria ; some of 

 the impressions in the form seem to be undistinguishable from 

 the Victorian fossils." Some of the New South Wales plant beds 

 have been referred by Baron von Ettingshausenf to eocene age, 

 apparently solely based upon the plant remains themselves. The 

 discussions on the age of the New South Wales coal series and of 

 the Laramie Beds of North America, go to show that very little 

 weight can be attached to the evidence afforded by terrestrial or 

 freshwater forms of life. The evidence which has been obtained 

 in South Australia and Victoria is of a more detinite nature, and 

 at present seems to point to the Cretaceous age of the older 

 deposits containing plant remains. 



From Clifton Springs to Lake Connewarre, the surface is 

 covered everywhere with a thick mantle of Upper Tertiary rocks, 

 consisting of clays, loose sands and quartz gravels. Along the 

 lake margin, and extending some distance inland, ferruginous 

 grits are the almost universal representatives of these beds. 

 They are of a dark-brown hue, coarse grained, fairly hard, and 

 afford the common road metal of the southern part of the district, 

 About a mile N.E. of Drysdale occurs a coarse sandstone with a 

 siliceous cement which is used as road metal near Portarlington. 

 Tlie quartz is glassy and in some cases shows crystalline faces. 

 The rock is of a whitish colour, somewhat cavernous, the cavities 

 beina; sometimes coated with limonite. 



Notes on the Geology of N.S.W., 1S82, p. 56. 



Mem. Geo. Surv. N.S.W., Pal. No. 2. Contributions to the Tertiary Flora of Australia, 



