Art. XII. — Probable Miocene Age of a Conglomerate at 



Shelford. 



(With Plate VII.). 



By J. Dennant, F.G.S., aud J. F. Mulder. 



[Read 13th August, 1896.] 



For some years boulders of gritty ironstone containing casts 

 of fossils have been reported by various observers as occurring 

 on a hill adjoining the Shelford Cemetery, but the material 

 appeared so unpromising that geologists have hitherto abstained 

 from undertaking a detailed examination of it. The position of 

 the boulders on the basalt precludes their being classed as a 

 portion of the eocene, which underlies this rock not only in 

 sections close at hand but also in those of neighbouring areas, 

 and the opinion has indeed been hazarded that they might be 

 pliocene, mainly perhaps, because that age had been previously 

 assigned to the lava flows around. 



We first saw blocks of the conglomerate placed amongst 

 basaltic boulders along a portion of the fence bordering an 

 unformed road up the western slope of the Leigh River Gorge. 

 It was too late when we arrived in Shelford to seek for them in 

 situ that clay, and we were, in fact, told that our search would 

 be fruitless, as the oldest inhabitant could give no information 

 as to where the stones came from. This mystery, however, was, 

 as we anticipated, easily cleared up the next morning, since they 

 were found in abundance just below the surface in the adjoining 

 paddock, from which, of course, the loose stones had been picked 

 up, and then piled against the fence. This paddock lies south of 

 the road and adjoins the cemetery, in which also embedded blocks 

 of the conglomerate are common. The same material also crops 

 out in a shallow gully, just over the fence on the opposite or 

 southern side of the paddock, but ceases on the rising ground 

 beyond. To the north of the road, we could find no trace of the 

 fossiliferous strata, nor indeed in any other part of the gorge, 

 though we searched at about the same level in several places. 

 "We should certainly expect similar boulders to occur elsewhere 

 on the river bank, and possibly a more thorough search may 



