[Proc. EOT. Soc. Victoria, 30 (N.S.), Pt. I., 1917]. 



Art. II. — 071 a Shell-bed underiying Volcanic Tuff near 

 Warrnamhool ; with Notes on the Age of the Deposit. 



FREDK. CHAPMAN, A.L.S., 



AND 



CHAS. J. GABRIEL. 



[Read 10th May, 1917]. 



1. — Occur/nice of the Shell-bed. 



Whilst on a visit to the Western District in 1912, the writers M^ere 

 informed by Mr. H. J. Hauschildt, of the Warrnambool Agricul- 

 tural High School, of an interesting occurrence of a bed of shells in 

 the dune-rock exposed at the mouth of the Hopkins River, on the 

 right bank, close to the Boat-sheds. This occurrence seemed worth 

 investigation from tlie fact that the shell-bed is completely covered 

 by the tuffs of the Tower Hill series, an examination of the organic 

 contents promising to thi'ow some light on the age of the tuffs of the 

 district and the building of the Tower Hill crater. 



It is a matter of general knowledge amongst geologists that 

 exposures of shell-beds are frequently found underlying the newer 

 volcanic in this locality ,'1 but so far as we are aware, no detailed 

 examination of the fauna has been carried out. Hence, as a result 

 of our visit these notes have been prepared, although owinj^: to 

 more pressing work they have been unavoidably delayed. 



2.— Condition of the Shell-bed. 



The stratum consists of a closely packed shelly and calcareous 

 sandy deposit. The material is not consolidated by deposition from 

 solution or by any secondary mineralisation, for it can be readily 



1 Broiiifh Siiivth in his paper "On the Extinct Volcanoes of Victoria, Australia" (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. xiv., IS.'iS, p. 227), quotes a letter of A. R. C. Selwyn's d»ted Augfnst 

 11th, 1857, in which he says "Tower Hill is certainly the most recent volcanic vent I have yet seen. 

 It appears, at lea.st during its later eruptions, to have emitted vast quantities of ashes and scoriae ; 

 these are seen near Warrnambool, restin{r on beds of shell, sand and earthy limestone, containinf;. 

 numbers of livinff littoral species of moUusca." 



