Miocene Strata of the Gqypsland Lahes Area. 135 



species, but no special interest attaches to any of the outcrops. 

 One of the best sections for fossils is that at Lake Bunga, where 

 they are both plentiful and well preserved. 



On the coast at the Red Blutf, and also between there and Lake 

 Bunga, there is a great thickness of stratified calcareous sandstone 

 overlain by clay and gravel wash, all unfossilifei'ous though 

 probably also of miocene age. Similar unfossiliferous sandstones 

 overlie the fossil bearing beds near Jemuiy s Point, and form clift's 

 of about the same height, viz., from 50 feet up to 200 feet. No 

 contact of the miocene with the adjoining eocene of Lake Tyers 

 was observed ; the most easterly locality noted as a collecting 

 station is not far from Red Bluff, which is thus close to the 

 apparent eastern boundary of the miocenes. Their disappearance 

 in this direction is abrupt, since at Lake Bunga they show no 

 signs of thinning out. It is possible indeed that, although they 

 have not so far been observed, they may crop out again in places 

 farther eastward. Certainly they are not seen on the road to 

 Orbost, and the beds at Hospital Creek nncl on the Snowy River 

 are characteristically eocene. 



Inland, at Christopher Ritches', on the Mississippi Creek, the 

 shells are exposed in a road cutting, from which, among the 

 usual species, several not collected elsewhere in the area have 

 at difterent times been obtained. As this creek is followed 

 northwards the beds gradually thin out and disappear, while 

 still further north, trappean rocks only were seen. 



In crossing one of Ritches' paddocks near the Creek, we 

 noticed the shells among the giass as if they had been turned up 

 by the plough. Similaily at Roadknight's they show on some 

 rising ground in earth thrown out of wombat lioles. On the 

 northern shores of the lakes almost every landslip discloses them 

 in abundance, while the quarries and I'oad cuttings in the vicinity 

 frequently expose the fossiliferous sands and clays. The deposits 

 are thus wide spread, and probably extend over a great part, if 

 not the whole, of the area included between the approxin)ate 

 northern boundary of the miocene as marked on the map and the 

 Lakes' margin ; on the higher ground they are hidden from view- 

 by a moderate covering of pliocene and still later drifts. This 

 boundary, which we have of course merely sketched out by con- 

 necting the several outcrops, would, if it could be accurately 



