214 Proceedings of the Royal Society oj Victoria. 



was followed by the outburst of volcanic activity at the end of 

 the Cretaceous. Domes of andesites — one of which, Crandall 

 Volcano, was 13,500 feet high— were then piled up at intervals 

 along a line 170 miles in length ; then followed a short rest, 

 during which the andesitic cones were denuded ; finally came a 

 period of fissure eruptions discharging sheets of basalt and 

 rhyolite. The volcanic histoi-y of British East Africa shows 

 the same general sequence, from the great dome of the kenytes 

 to the basalts and trachytes of Laikipia and the Athi. 



The volcanic history of Victoria may be found to have passed 

 through the same stages. During the Palaeozoic there were 

 periods of great volcanic activity, especially in the Devonian 

 system. Then followed a long period of quiescence, succeeded, 

 probably in the late Mesozoic or early Cainozoic, by a renewal of 

 volcanic activity. Great dacite domes were formed at several 

 centres — Macedon, Dandenong, the Cerberean Ranges, and the 

 Blacks' Spur. After they became extinct the surrounding low- 

 lands were devastated by the eruption of the basalts of the 

 plains. 



Hence it is not improbable that Mount Macedon is one of the 

 volcanic piles that mark the beginning of the great period of 

 volcanic activity, of which the last eruptions built up still exist- 

 ing craters, and are recorded in the legends of the Victorian 

 aborisines. 



REFERENCES. 



1. — Aplifi, C. d'O. Quarter-sheet 6 IST.W. Geol. Surv. 



Victoria. 

 2. — Brogger, IV. C. Die Eruptiv-gesteine Kristianiagebietes, 



Pt. TIL, 1898. Das Gang-gefolge des Laurdalits. Vid- 



enskabsselskab Skrift, I., Math, naturw. Kl., 1897, 



No. 6. 

 3. — Fergusofi, IV. H. Notes on certain Geological Features of 



the parishes of Gembrook North and Nangana. Prog. 



Rep. Vict. Geol. Surv., No. 8, 1894, p. 58. 



