76 Proceedings of ilie Royal Society of Victoria. 



maps with locality names, was referred to as the Mordialloc, 

 Cheltenham or Brighton beds. The age to which the beds are 

 to be i-eferi'ed is the subject of very diverse views, as the follow- 

 ing statement will show. 



They were referred to : — 



Older Pliocene - by McCoy - - - - 1875 



Miocene - - - by Hall and Pritchard - 1897 



Miocene (?) - - by Tate 1888 



Oligocene (?) - - by Tate 1899 



Eocene - - - by Tate and Dennant - 1893 



Eocene - - - by Pritchard - - - 1892 



Similarly a series of beds at Spring Creek, south of Geelong, 

 was held by M'Coy to range from Upper Miocene to Oligocene. 

 Messrs. Tate and Dennant at one time considered the Avhole 

 series Eocene, but at a later date Professor Tate referred it to 

 Oligocene, while we are of opinion that the series as a whole is 

 older than the Mornington series called Eocene by Messrs. Tate 

 and Dennant as well as by ourselves. 



Correlation of Australian strata with those of the Old World 

 and with America is a task of great importance, and problems of 

 interest connected with the place of origin of certain forms of life 

 can only be solved when this task shall have been fulfilled- 

 Hitherto the question of correlation has not received very 

 detailed investigation at the hands of geologists of the northern 

 hemisphere, for the question is one of extreme difficulty. The 

 conclusions of Australian geologists have been provisionally 

 accepted with a more or less open expression of doubt. But the 

 time for this is passing away and we shall no longer be allowed 

 to settle the question alone as best we can. American geologists 

 are turning their attention to the Patagonian Tertiaries, which 

 they assert have, as we should expect, an undoubted close 

 relationship to ours. By the time scale they deduce they will 

 judge the age of the mammalian fauna there, and as far as has 

 yet been announced they will refer the marine beds to a younger 

 age than we do. Probably if this be so we shall not give way 

 without a struggle, but, with our present nomenclature, we must 

 use terms which imply the acceptance of a theory. As a great 

 amount of work for many years to come will be concerned with 



