Art. VIII. — A Suggested Nomenclatiire for the Marine 

 Tertiary Deposits of Southern Australia. 



By T. S. hall, M.A., and G. B. PRITCHARD. 



[Eead 10th October, 1901.] 



The confusion that has existed and still exists as to tlie age of 

 the various members of the Tertiary series of Southern Australia 

 makes it impossible for anyone who is not familiar with the 

 history of the subject to understand what beds are referred to 

 when the terms Eocene, Miocene, or Pliocene are used. It will 

 probably be long before complete unanimity exists among workers 

 in various parts of the globe as to the ages to which our sub- 

 divisions are to be referred, and meanwhile fossils are being 

 described ai^d recorded as Eocene or Miocene and the confusion 

 is rapidly becoming worse. Moreover, with the pi'ogress of time 

 the ideas of authors as to the age of certain beds change and 

 their Eocene of to-day is not their Eocene of say ten years ago. 



One familiar with even the outlines alone of Our Tertiary 

 Geology has only to glance at the brief notices which modei'n 

 English text books give of our Caiiiozoic series to see confusion 

 in the minds of geologists elsewhere. The fault lies at our own 

 door and we should amend our ways and not pillory those who 

 cannot understand us. We ourselves know without any difficulty 

 what Duncan meant when he said " Miocene " and what M'Coy 

 meant by Oligocene. We know what beds Professor Tate, Mr. 

 Dennant and ourselves mean by these terms, but it is surely too 

 much to ask anyone to so familiarize himself with the kaleido- 

 scopic changes of our Tertiary controversy that he has to 

 recollect the date of the paper he is reading and the particular 

 views of the author at that date in order to remember the fauna 

 associated with a newly described fossil. 



Perhaps two examples will show the condition into which we 

 have drifted and the urgent need of reform. There is a short 

 section exposed near the hamlet of Beaumaris on the shores of 

 Port Phillip Bay which, before closer settlement had tilled in our 



