Geology of the Loiver Mitchell River. 31 



the pebl)les and stones are cemented together, giving a hard 



conglomerate cap whicli has weathered less than the surrounding 



softer material. The fine drift sand on this side suggests 



sedimentation from a river current, which emptied into the 



eocene sea, near the present mouth of Boggy Creek. The 



sediments are of course marine, and practically contemporaneous 



with the deposition of the limestone on the eastern bank. 



A short distance up the western rise from Boggy Creek, and 



just before reaching Dooley's gate, thei'e is a road cutting, in 



which a thickness of 8 or 10 feet of massive ironstone is exposed. 



Its elevation is 160 feet above sea level, and, though unpromising 



looking for fossils, we ultimately found a layer shewing numerous 



casts, amongst which we identified the following species : — 



Conns sp. Glycimeris laticostata 



Lampusia sp. Cardiiim sp. 



Spondylus gaederopoides Magellania insolita 



Pecten foulcheri Echinoderm (spine) 



Pecten gambierensis Placotrochiis deltoideus 



These fossils of course stamp the outcrop as eocene, which 

 thus extends upwards at Boggy Creek, and does not give place in 

 the higher levels to the Bellevue miocene. Again, on the 

 southern cliff, at the mouth of the Creek, which is 194 feet above 

 datum line, and thus fully 40 feet higher than Bellevue, the top- 

 most strata are still eocene. In fact, after leaving Underwood's, 

 we found no further trace of the miocene westward, though we 

 made most diligent search. 



At Myrtle Point, about a mile further west, we again struck 

 the river. Ironstone is here abundant just below the summit of 

 the cliffs as well as in places down the bank. Many boulders were 

 broken up but the fossil casts wei'e rare and mostly indistinct ; 

 we identified only Magellania insolita, and Cardita delicatula from 

 this outcrop. In many blocks we noticed very small fragments 

 of decayed wood. 



Before leaving the Boggy Creek Section we remark that the 

 fossils obtained by Mr. Howitt in his researches in this area 

 were submitted to Sir F. McCoy, who classed those from the 

 ironstones of Boggy Creek and Moitun Creek as upper miocene 

 or lower pliocene, and younger than the Bairnsdale limestones, 

 which he placed in the middle miocene ( 1 ). The distinction in age 

 thus drawn between the calciferous and ferruginous beds at 



