4 E. 0. Thiele : Palaeozoic Se^'pentine Conglomerate. 



of the included boulders, that glacial action may be the original 

 agency to which the origin of the conglomerate is to be attributed, 

 but both the mechanical and chemical alterations which have taken 

 place make the question a very difficult one to decide at present. 

 The age of this deposit is at present also somewhat obscure, as 

 no sections showing clearly the relation of the conglomerate to 

 the Ordovician rocks or the Upper Palaeozoic series were 

 observed. 



Conglomerates are largely developed in the neighbouring 

 Carboniferous rocks, but these differ markedly in lithological 

 features from those of the serpentine area and, further, they 

 usually show little mechanical distui-bance. 



The general coincidence of the foliation of the serpentine with 

 the prevailing strike of the Ordovician rocks, which here are 

 much folded and broken, points rather to the probability of the 

 serpentine and associated rocks being Ordovician or older. 



The conglomerate described appears to present some features 

 quite distinct from those hitherto observed in other conglomerates 

 of Victoria, and some of these are perhaps quite peculiar to this 

 deposit. Serpentine is not a usual matrix of conglomerates ; 

 other instances may be known, but in the numerous descriptions 

 of the serpentine occurrences of Great Britain, the Alps and 

 elsewhere, I have been unable to find reference to a conglom- 

 erate of this nature. 



These few remarks have been written to draw the attention of 

 other geologists to the peculiarities of this deposit, in the hope 

 that some of them may have an opportunity of examining the 

 occurrence more fully and thus aid in solving some of its 

 mysteries. 



