Tertiary Deposits of the Aire and Cape Otway. 51 



Chione halli, Pritchard. 

 Cardita polynema, Tate. 

 Myadora lamellata, Tate. 



Cape Otway. 



A list of fossils from this locality has been published and 

 discussed by Messrs. Tate and Dennant, and the beach exposure 

 was briefly described by them (12 and 13). Inland from the coast 

 about half a square mile of swampy land occurs surrounded by 

 high sand dunes. The streams draining from these swamps run 

 over the sea front of the V>eds which consist entirely of slipped 

 material which has in places flowed out like thick porridge and 

 in this are mingled dune rock, recent shells blown up from the 

 beach and fossils. The only eocene rock we could find in situ 

 was about 200 yards from the beach where a small runnel had 

 cut down through the peaty soil to yellow clay with a few fossils 

 in it ; but no sign of stratification could be seen owing to the 

 small extent of the exposure. 



On the coast-line the mesozoic rocks rise sharply to the south- 

 east and above the level of the eocenes and occupy the coast-line 

 as far as Point Castries, some six miles north-east of Lome. 



An examination of the details given above of the beds exposed 

 at Wilkinson's No. 4 locality will show that during the deposition 

 of the series there, a gradual shallowing of the water took place. 

 The lowermost beds are fine grained and compact and almost the 

 only fossils ai-e beautifully perfect pieces of polyzoa, the long 

 delicate branches of which are unbroken, thus pointing to 

 comparatively undisturbed depths. As we pass up through the 

 series the I'ocks become coarser till we reach the uppermost beds 

 exposed, the polyzoal limestone, which is full of quartz grit and 

 rounded pebbles. Thus we see that a polyzoal limestone may be 

 deposited in quite shallow water close to land and we may then 

 consider what evidence there is that the limestones of our 

 tertiary beds represent deep water deposits and that the clays 

 represent strata laid down at lesser depths, a conclusion arrived 

 at by Duncan and adopted by many subsequent writers. Our 

 polyzoal limestones are composed of fragments of all sorts and 



