64 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



sufficiently explored to enable us to make definite subdi- 

 visions of the j)rincipal gi'oups, but from its high proportion 

 of recent shells, the Jemmy's Point deposit is, undoubtedly, 

 the youngest member of our marine Miocene group yet met 

 with. 



There is certainly a strong likeness between the Jemmy's 

 Point and the upper Muddy Creek beds. Out of the 102 

 Molluscau forms gathered from the former, no less than 47 

 are found in the latter also. From the South Australian 

 localities we get 10 additional species, making 56 per cent, 

 of shells common to Jemmy's Point, and the other recognised 

 Miocene beds. 



In the lower or Eocene* zone of Muddy Creek, which has 

 yielded about 450 species of mollusca, only 1 6 of the Jemmj-'s 

 Point fossils are found, and the majority, of these are widely 

 distributed shells, and common to the Eocene and Miocene 

 throughout Australia. 



At Muddy Creek, the Eocene and Miocene beds are in 

 contact, a circumstance which prevented their distinct 

 character being recognised until lately; but at Jemmy's 

 Point it is of especial interest to note that the Miocene 

 deposit is the only one present. 



The Jemmy's Point beds are of course quite separate from 

 the calcareous strata of the Glenelg River, Portland Bay, 

 Jan Juc, Bairnsdale, &c., which are commonly, but I think 

 erroneously, regarded as Aliocene by our geologists. In au 

 article read before the Australasian Association this year, I 

 gave my reasons for placing these in the Lower Tertiary or 

 Eocene group. They have been known as Miocene so long, 

 and have been quoted as such in so many geological memoirs, 

 both Australian and European, that it seems almost pre- 

 sumptuous to call in question the correctness of the 

 classification. 



* A confirmation of the opinion expressed by Professor Tate and mj'self 

 as to the Eocene age of the lower Muddy Creek beds, and their equivalents 

 in South Australia, has recently appeared from the pen of M. Cossmau, a 

 Parisian specialist in the Department of Tertiary Gastropods. In reviewing 

 Parts I and II of Professor Tate's "Older Tertiary Gasteropoda," in 

 L'Anmiaire de Geologie Universelle, Paris 1889, M. Cossmau says — " This 

 fauna has an incontestable analogy with that of the Paris basin. M. Tate 

 will probably give us this year a continuation of his grand work ; we should 

 see with pleasure this savant establish more frequent aiiinities with the 

 European species, and with those of the Alabama basin. It is incontestable 

 that the Australian fauna, if it does uotcontani sj^ecies in common with these 

 two faunas, occupies at the least a sort of middle place between these deposits, 

 which are so widely separated geographically." 



