Granitic and Palaeozoic Mocks, Dandenong. 117 



v.— Conclusions. 



As the granite is approached, the alteration in the ordovician 

 or Silurian rocks is so marked that there can be no doubt that the 

 granite is post-ordovician. Most of the stratified rock near 

 Dandenong is hidden by a thick layer of loam and clay, so that 

 the bedding can only be seen in a few road-cuttings and quarries. 

 As stated above, the lower palaeozoic beds wherever exposed are 

 found in almost all cases to dip away from the granite area. This 

 formation seems to be common in Victoria, and Mr. R. A. F. 

 Murray in his Geology and Physical Geography of Victoria, page 

 24, writes : " Another marked feature is that the granite intru- 

 sions do not appear to be connected with the folding process to 

 which the silurian rocks have been subjected, and to which is due 

 the normal high rate of inclination of their layers. That process 

 would appear to have taken place prior to the invasion of the 

 sedimentary strata by igneous masses, as we find in many cases 

 that the strike of silurian strata abuts directly on the granite, 

 and in others that the dip of the strata is against, instead of 

 with, the surface slope of the granite. Evidences of the 

 intrusive character of the granite to a certain extent are, how- 

 ever, visible in many places, in the locally contorted and 

 crumpled state of the silurian strata, near their contact with 

 the former." 



Mr. Murray then goes on to infer, from the description given 

 by A. R. C, Selwyn, of the country east of the Snowy River, 

 that much of the granite there was formed by the fusion and 

 recrystallization of the silurian rocks. The granite near 

 Dandenong does not seem to have been formed in this way as 

 there is no intermediate rock between the granite and altered 

 stratified rock. 



There is no evidence to show that the dacite further north, 

 near Ferntree Gully, is contemporaneous with the granite. Since 

 dykes have been found connected with the granite, but none 

 with the dacite, the latter is probably the younger. Therefore 

 the granite was formed after the ordovician period, but before 

 the dacite. 



