TliC Geology of Coimitidai. . 61 



The deposits described in the present paper are those contained 

 in the three last groups of the above list. 



With regard to the previous geological work in this district 

 we are informed by Mr. Stirling, Government Geologist, that 

 surveys of this part of the country were executed many years 

 ago by the Government officers, but the results were never 

 published, and all trace of them appears to have been lost. Tlie 

 only published account of the geology of Coimaidai is a siiort 

 report by Mr. Ferguson, Assistant Government Geologist, 

 contained in the Mining Department Progress Report, No. VIII., 

 1894. Mr. Ferguson gives a sketch map and sections, reference 

 to which will be made further on. 



As already mentioned, the limestones are best studied in the 

 neighbourhood of the township of Coimaidai. On the eastern 

 side of the Pyrete Valley, opposite Mr. Bennett's hotel, are two 

 large quarries, Alkemade's and Bennett's, in which splendid 

 sections are exhibited ; a third and smaller quarry (Bui'nip's) 

 occurs on the west side of the valley. The material quarried is 

 a magnesian limestone, used for the manufacture of lime and 

 hydraulic cement. It is in this formation tliat the mammalian 

 bones have been discovered which give to these beds their peculiar 

 scientific interest. The bones already found included fairly well 

 preserved jaw-bones of the kangaroo and wombat, fragments of 

 jaw-bones of a macropoid type, and portions of long bones. 



The writers of this paper are in communication with Mr. 

 C. de Vis, M.A., of Bi-isbane, with a view of obtaining from him 

 a detailed description of the bones in their possession, and also 

 of those collected by Mr. Ferguson, which have been kindly 

 placed at their disposal for this purpose by Mr. Stirling, Govern- 

 ment Geologist. It may here be mentioned that bones and 

 fragments have been obtained in situ by each of the writers under 

 circumstances which entirely preclude the supposition that the 

 bones found by them may have made their way in comparatively 

 recent times to the positions in which they were discovered by 

 means of earth-cracks or fissures. The entombment of the bones 

 certainly took place contemporaneously with the deposition of 

 the enclosing sediments. 



In view of the importance attaching to * the discovery of 

 mammalian bones in Victoria, somewhat detailed accounts will 



