Tertiaries in the Neighbourhood of Melbourne. 207 



in the volcanic rock which affords an impervious bottom. If 

 this were the case we should expect the base of the ferruginous 

 beds to contain limonite and the more hydrated forms of iron 

 oxide. This is, however, not what we do find. The hematite 

 stops suddenly, though in places somewhat irregularly, and is 

 immediately succeeded in depth by the white sands. The other 

 explanation, and the one which we are inclined to accept is that 

 the iron has all come from the beds above and has been prevented 

 from reaching the lower beds by a band of clay through which 

 the water with iron in solution could not percolate. 



The presence of the hematite cement which marks off the highly 

 fossiliferous band from the limonite bearing beds above, together 

 with the fact that the characteristic fossils which it contains do 

 not rise over the bosses of volcanic rock, but lie in its eroded 

 hollows, would in themselves afford some slight evidence of its 

 distinctness from the overlying beds. That there is a real break 

 the fossil evidence clearly shows. The fossils of this lower band 

 are Eocene while those of the beds above it are Miocene. 



The uppermost beds displayed in the cutting form the table- 

 land of Royal Park. They have been removed by subsequent 

 denudation at the south-westerly end of the cutting where the 

 surface of the ground drops rapidly. The material of which 

 they consist varies from quartz gravel to line sand with a large 

 proportion of clay. The lower beds of this upper series, as a rule, 

 are more strongly cemented by limonite than are the upper ones, in 

 which the ferruginous material occurs very irregularly. Towards 

 the top of the cutting the beds are in places almost free from 

 iron which has been irregularly removed. Fossils are very scarce, 

 but we have gathered a few forms which are so characteristic 

 that there cannot, to our minds, be any doubt of the horizon to 

 which the beds should be referred. The quarter-sheet records 

 " fossil leaves and fruit in tertiary ferruginous sandstone " from 

 this locality. We have not found any traces of these at this spot 

 but believe them to have come from the upper beds. 



Lower Beds (Eocene). 

 Echinodermata. 



Psammechinus woodsi, Laube. 

 ? Toxobrissus sp. (also at Schnapper Point, Moorabool 

 Valley and Waurn Ponds). 

 Cidaroid spines. 



