1*32 Proceedings of the Jio;/al Society of Victoria. 



The next circumsiraiice illusti-ated by the local features 

 is the effect of a lava flow upon tlie distribution of shallow 

 v/ater deposits. 



Tlie tongue of rock projected in a molten state across a 

 submarine plain of shifting sands, forms a permanent ridge 

 against which the swift currents at once heap up bai-s of 

 sand. When these become very thick, so that the lower 

 portions are not disturbed for long periods, the base of the 

 ma&s may become cemented into hard rock by the percolation 

 of lime in solution, or from the moment sand is heaped over 

 the vincooled lava, the gases and acidulated waters may slake 

 the mass into compact strata. This has occurred here, and 

 thus a spit seems to have been formed, over which is spread 

 a bed of clay which may be volcanic ash decomposed in -situ. 

 or an ordinary littoral deposit. Upon the top of this clay 

 bed is a very horizontal soil bed ; just such a sandy loam as / 

 is now seen to be capping the clitfs, very fine, and darkened 

 with abundant carbonaceous matter. The next stage is that 

 this land surface — which may have been no more than the 

 muddy fore-shore of the Barwou, or Lake Connewarre — gets 

 covered with sand, which is false bedded, and as far as I can 

 see, unfossiliferous. Whether then this is a sedimentary (ji- 

 an eblian deposit it is hard to say, as false bedding occurs in 

 rocks originating in either way. There aie, however, thin 

 beds of watei'-worn conglomerates intercalated between these 

 false bedded sandstones, which lead me to believe that the 

 coast was sinking and that the sands were spread over this 

 sf»it by the sea currents. The old land surface humus, 

 although it has been compressed by the overlying sandstone, 

 IS still about two feet thick, and its upjier margin is very 

 sharply marked off from the dejx^sit above it. This latter 

 rises as a cliff face to a height ot from seventy to ninety feet. 

 ]t is divided into at least three greater divisions, and these 

 again are resolvable into lesser beds, all current bedded. 

 There are differences to be observed which distinguish the 

 l;u-ger masses from each other. The middle bed at one part 

 of the cliff especially, contains so much lime that every 

 piojection of the rock wall carries its group of stalactites. 

 At a considerable height up the cliff face there is a bed of 

 conglomerate, or breccia, marked E in the sections. The 

 stones are small sized, some are basaltic pebbles water-worn, 

 the rest are of sandstone, some loUed and some not, many 

 having a black burnt look. The whole mass is very strongly 

 cemented together by carborate of lime. It is worthy of 



