52 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



their observations, namely, that there are really two basalts of 

 distinct ages present and separated by marine beds. The fact 

 that, at the Moorabool locality, the basalt overlies the Miocene 

 beds is certainly strong presumptive evidence that the relative 

 position to which Messrs. Etheridge and Murray referred the 

 newest of the basalts of the Shelford district is the correct one, 

 namely, that it is subsequent to the beds which the Survey termed 

 Older Pliocene, and which are now generally called Miocene. 

 Messrs. Dennant and Mulder state that, in the section in which 

 they found the Miocene deposit, the base of the volcanic rock is 

 hidden by the recent river alluvium. If then, as appears 

 probable, there be two basalts at Shelford, the age of the lower 

 one is still undetermined. It must be pre-Miocene, and from its 

 close proximity to the Eocene basalt of Maude, it will quite 

 possibly be found to be a part of the same flow. 



The railway cutting on the left bank of the stream shows, 

 under a thin basalt capping, beds of the same character as those 

 described above on the right bank, and yielded no fossils. 

 Eastwards from the Moorabool Railway Station the railway runs 

 in the valley of Cowie's Creek, and several cuttings show the 

 beds beneath the basalt capping, and they are also displayed in 

 natural sections in the valley. Daintree and Wilkinson, who 

 mapped the Quarter-sheet, 24 N.E., indicate two sets of beds as 

 occurring, namely, "Older Pliocene " and "Miocene," or, as we 

 consider them, Miocene and Eocene. Judged by the light of the 

 section above described to the west of the viaduct, it is possible 

 that this is correct, as the levels are about the same. The beds 

 merely differ in the fact that these to the eastward are not highly 

 ferruginous. They are sandy, sometimes calcareous, and in places 

 in immediate contact with the overlying basalt are changed to 

 quartzites. The dip is slight and is at first north-westerly, 

 whereas further east, where the age is shown to be Eocene by the 

 fossils, the dip is reversed, being to the south-east. These are 

 only apparent dips, as shown in the railway cutting. About four 

 miles to the northward a small patch of Miocene (? Eocene) 

 is mapped (this outcrop is uncoloured in some copies of the 

 Quarter-sheet, but is coloured Miocene in others), and an anticline 

 ■with a north-east strike is shown. The axis of the anticline 

 would run, if produced in a straight line, near to this locality. 



