34 Proceedmgs of the Royal Societi/ of Victoria. 



Two bores were put down, Selwyn says, one near Mordialloc, 

 and after passing through 238ft. of soft sand and clay of the 

 tertiary series, bottomed on a very hard, dense, black rock, or 

 basalt. The second was commenced near Frankston, on the 

 Nine-Mile Beacli, and has been carried to a depth of 172ft. Of 

 this, 165ft. was again through clay and sand, and the last 7ft. 

 was partly in sandstone of the old Silurian series, and the 

 remainder again in the dark, very hard trap. Of the bore 

 mentioned as being put down in the " coal strata," we can find 

 no record. Subsequently to this many brief references were 

 made to the fossils and age of the blue clays, chiefly by M'Coy, 

 who at first called them Upper Eocene, and then, accepting the 

 new term Oligocene as its equivalent, changed his references to 

 the age to this. 



In 1893 Messrs. Tate and Dennant (5) published a list of 

 about 130 described species of mollusca from Mornington, and 

 referred the beds to Eocene age ; while numerous references to 

 the fossils and additional records occur in other papers of these 

 authors, as well as in several of our own. 



In 1900 Mr. A. E. Kitson (6) wrote a report on the geology 

 of the district, accompanied by a map and sections. In this 

 paper there is a large amount of detailed description of the ex- 

 posed sections, and the age of the various beds is discussed, but 

 the consideration of many interesting points is defei'red. 



Early in the present year Mr. E. G. Hogg published a paper 

 (7) on our Victorian granites, in which the granite rocks of this 

 area were described. 



]\Iore than ten years ago we began paying attention to tlie 

 geology of the district, and, besides collecting largely from the 

 various outcrops, have made numerous traverses, while for many 

 years past we have taken students over the ground and discussed 

 the more important sections with them. The puzzling nature of 

 several of the sections, owing to faulting and to landslips, 

 delayed our earlier publication, but, as we believe that we can add 

 some useful information to that already supplied by ]Mr. Kitson, 

 we venture on the present paper. The scope of !Mr. Kitson's 

 communication renders it unnecessary for us to do much more 

 than to discuss a few of the sections displayed on the coast or in 

 the gullies, and to supply a list of the fossils known to us to 

 occur. 



