92 ProceediiKjs of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



not the case, for one of them, which, according to the evidence 

 already produced, must have preceded the rest by a long inter- 

 val of time. This lower or more ancient flow is well marked on 

 the western bank from the township to within half a mile of the 

 Red Bluff, where it terminates in a narrow tongue of land, and is 

 seen no more. At this point it is still 110 feet above the river. 

 In making the main road from Shelford to Rokewood up the 

 steep hill leading to the table-land, tlie basalt has been cut 

 through, and a good section is obtained. Here it reaches to a 

 height of 105 feet above datum line, and is apparently in sheets 

 which incline towards the hill at an angle of 4°. We asked 

 some workmen who were quarrying the basalt close to this 

 section what they expected to find beneath it. They replied 

 "limestone," and that without going to any great depth. They 

 are undoubtedly right, but the difficulty with the lower basalt is 

 not as to the strata which underlie it, but as to its relation to the 

 limestone often met with at a higher level. Our experience in 

 reference to one section will illustrate what we mean. Just 

 below the cemetery, and at a height of 120 feet, there is a marl 

 pit from which lime has been obtained for manuring the 

 adjoining land. Lower down, the bank is covered with basalt, 

 which is proved to be i?i situ by a quarry with massive rock 

 showing. We thought at first that this basalt might pass under 

 the limestone, the eocene cliaracter of which was determined on 

 fossil evidence. The owner of the land obligingly sank a hole 

 three feet deep at the base of the marl pit, making its total 

 depth about 10 feet, which should, by the respective levels of the 

 outcrops, have reached the supposed basalt underneath. On the 

 contrary, he bottomed on solid massive limestone. He also gave 

 it as his opinion that we should probably continue in the lime- 

 stone by sinking lower, as he has never heard of an instance 

 where basalt has been struck by quarrying the marls which show 

 here and there along the bank. Higher up the river, the 

 sections already quoted appear on the whole favourable to the 

 view of the case here stated, viz , that the basalt is banked up 

 against an eocene ridge instead of being an interbedded sheet. 

 If so, it must have followed a minor depression in the older 

 strata, and was consequently confined within narrow limits. 



