Geology of the Lower Yarra. 245 



and up Jolimont Road a little towards Wellington Parade, then, 

 swinging past the front of the East Melbourne Cricket Ground 

 runs parallel with and a little to the south of Flinders Street, 

 past Prince's and Queen's Bridges to the Steam Ferry, Spencer 

 Street. This last record is given in a paper by Mr. Lucas, M.A., 

 B.Sc, F.G.S., "On the Sections of the Delta of the Yarra, 

 displayed in the Fishermen's Bend Cutting."^ 



In the Richmond quarries, where the basalt appears to consist 

 of several flows, the excavations have in some instances passed 

 through the basalt disclosing gravels, sands, and sandy clays of 

 probably fluviatile origin underneath. They apparently represent 

 the old channel of the Yarra. In several places fragments and 

 trunks of trees have been found lying embedded in these sedi- 

 ments. The wood of the trees was carbonised and in parts filled 

 with pyrite. The basalt extends some miles further up the 

 valley of the Yarra to Dight's Falls, and connects with the flow 

 that came down Merri Creek, and the sheet that forms the gently 

 sloping country from the Merri Creek to Alphington. In the 

 City of Melbourne Corporation quarry, also, on the western 

 bank of Merri Creek, at Clifton Hill, there is a thickness of about 

 100 feet of basalt. Trunks of small trees and pieces of wood, all 

 carbonised, were found in tlie sediments underlying. The basalt 

 in this quarry is exceptionally rich in zeolites, and various forms 

 of carbonate of lime, and some dazzlingly beautiful specimens are 

 from time to time revealed by the operations carried on. In one 

 instance a small chamber in the basalt was broken into and found 

 to be resplendent with innumerable clusters, bunches and 

 single crystals. 



Though in these quarries the basalt is so thick only one flow 

 appears to have extended down as far as the Botanical Gardens 

 and Queen's Bridge. In the former locality on its northern 

 fringe it is covered by several feet of grey clay derived from the 

 Silurian rocks. Thus in shafts at the corner of Jolimont Street 

 and Jolimont Road there is a thickness of six feet of brown and 

 grey plastic and sandy clays lying on the basalt ; in Wellington 

 Parade, opposite the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, 18 feet of 

 clays on the basalt; while at the corner of Jolimont Road and 



1 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. xxiii., 1S86. 



