128 E. 0. Teale : 



Buth (a) and (b) are to be seen iu some fine sections in the cut- 

 ting of the new Bairnsdale-Orbost railway line. 



I he Marine beds so far noted consist of cream coloured sandy 

 limestones and marls similar to the Baivnsdale Series, and j^robably 

 Janjukian in age. These deposits can he traced from the coast to 

 the head of Lake Tyers, where they are ferruginous, but further 

 south along the lake cliffs the characteristic limestones are well 

 developed. Several small outcrops are exposed in the railway line 

 between Nowa Nowa and the Snowy Kiver. But it is at the latter 

 locality along the cliffs overlooking the river flats from the western 

 side, that the finest sections are exposed. The railway cuttings here 

 reveal cream coloured horizontally l>e(lded limestones underlying 

 heavy fluviatile gravels and beds of water-worn boulders. 



The various sections have not l>een closely studied in order to 

 determine whether or not the later marine beds of Kalimnan age are 

 represented, but there are some coarsely bedded ferruginous grits, 

 probably of shallow water marine origin, which may belong to this 

 series. They appear to be unconformably overlaid by the later 

 fluviatile beds. 



So far as is known, all the marine beds in this region occur at 

 less than 200 feet above sea level, and do not extend inland more 

 than about twelve miles in a straight line from the coast. This 

 limit approximately marks the position of the early Kainozoie coast 

 line, and corresponds closely to the soutliern margin of the High- 

 lands in this region. 



Fluviatile Deposits. — Ihe.'^e overlie the uppei'inost marine Ijeds, 

 and are therefore late Kainozoic. ])ut as no fossils have been 

 found in them, their age cannot be definitely fixed. They are gene- 

 rallv regarded, hoAvever, on pliysiographical giounds as represent- 

 ing an important Pleistocene cycle of erosion. It is almost certain 

 though, that some of these deposits are older, particularly those 

 Avhich occupy ancient drainage lines in the Highlands, beneath lava 

 flows of basalt. In general, hoAvever, most of these fluviatile deposits 

 may probably safely be regarded as Pleistocene. 



Ihey form an extensive superficial sheet of material, ranging 

 from fine gravels and sandy clays to deposits of large water-worn 

 boulders, the latter providing a very interesting miscellaneous col- 

 lection of igneous and sedimentary rocks, among which various 

 kinds of porphyries are abundant. They range in height from 

 fifty to several hundred feet above the present river beds, and are 

 found rising in the soutliern portion of the highlands to at least 

 '800 feat above sea level. 



