8 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



lower part of the hill, no great distance above the river, 

 apparently composed of similar material to the last, but more 

 dense and compact ; so much so that in quarrying, in one or 

 two cases, blocks were dislodged some tons in weight, and 

 very difficult to break up. 



Some idea of the extent of the operations may be gained 

 from the fact that the ten hands engaged, beside searching 

 the surface over a large area, removed, in the five weeks 

 during which the operations were continued, over five 

 hundred tons of earth and rock, much of the latter having 

 to be carefully broken and searched, to obtain the three 

 hundred specimens with which our labour was rewarded. 



Having determined these various strata, I now needed to 

 obtain palseontological evidence of their age. There are 

 considerable quantities of freestone on the surface, from 

 which, occasionally, very interesting fossil specimens were, 

 with considerable searcli, obtained. 



On the evening of December 28rd, during a walk among 

 some large heaps of stone collected from a patch of cultivated 

 land below and to the north of " 7," I had, looking between 

 the stones as the setting sun cast its light in the interstices, 

 espied distinct fish scale markings on an under stone, and 

 on removing the stones pressing on it, found it to be 

 the cast of a fisli differing in appearance from any I 

 had before seen. It was about thirteen inches long and 

 four inches broad, with the scales and scale-markings deeply 

 and plainly pitted in the stone. Neither the head nor tail 

 are perfect, but the anal fin is both large and distinct, and 

 the dorsal fin can also be discerned. This specimen has 

 since been named CosTnolepides sweeti (McCoy). 



Yet the importance of tracing these remains to their 

 natural bed, and of obtaining them in situ, was fully 

 recognised. To effect this, efforts were continued for some 

 days, with the result that one bed (P) was suspected to be 

 the one from which certain remains had come. 



On the horizon of K, I had discovered portions of fish 

 with a form of scale much smaller, but in other respects like 

 that I had found on the 23rd, and retaining in this case 

 their bony structure. I had set a man to work to trench 

 up the hill side, hoping to strike the bed from whence they 

 had come. While he was thus engaged on the morning of 

 the 26th of December last, continuing myself the surface 

 search near to him, I opened a stone by splitting it along 

 the beding plane, and to my delight, a half of one of the 



