Tertiaries in the Neighbourhood of Melbourne. 223 



Miocene. 



An examination of the list of fossils from Cheltenham leaves 

 little room for doubt that the deposit must be regarded as of the 

 same age as the upper beds of Muddy Creek and Jemmy's Point. 



With the Cheltenham beds must be grouped all the others 

 from which we have recorded fossils in the present paper, with 

 the exception of those above indicated as Eocene. Overlying 

 these beds we have a series of sandstones and gravels which, 

 wherever seen in the district south-east of Melbourne, appear 

 to be inseparable from the underlying fossiliferous Miocene. 

 Towards the north these deposits thin out on the flanks of the 

 Silurian and are probably in the main of freshwater origin. To 

 the south-east they are overlain by the still more recent deposits 

 of Carrum Swamp and reappear beyond its southern boundary. 

 They cover a large part of the northern portion of the Mornington 

 Peninsula, where they can be seen in fine cliff section uncomform- 

 ably overlying the Marine Eocene. Similar rocks reappear in the 

 Bellarine Peninsula (11). The survey grouped these rocks 

 together and referred them to the Pliocene. At South Yarra, 

 and if the locality reference of the fossils be correct, at Windsor, 

 we have some difficulty in deciding whether the Eocene has or 

 has not, a Miocene cover. Provisionally, however, we may group 

 the superficial rocks of this area with the rest of the Miocene. 

 Similarly to the north and north-west of Melbourne there is, in 

 places, considerable difficulty in separating the Eocene from the 

 Miocene beds. Probably the Eocene does not extend further 

 north than the line from Royal Park to Keilor. As shown 

 by the bores at Altona Bay the Eocene thickens towards the 

 south. It thins out to the north where it is covered by the 

 Miocene which overlaps and runs far inland passing under the 

 basalt plains. The deposit, where not protected by the lava flow 

 has suffered much from denudation, and its material has 

 frequently been redistributed. This great denudation had 

 already progressed far before the outpouring of the Newer 

 Volcanic Rocks, and in some places, as at Northcote Hill, we 

 find an inlier which rises high above the lava plain. 



The ferruginous beds, according to Selwyn (1), underlie the 

 lowland between Melbourne and Port Melbourne. The bores to 



