Shell-bed undedying Volcanic Tnjf. 5 



-tn-oken up in the fingers and the sand is loose enough to be scraped 

 out of the interior of the shells with the finger-nail. 



The mollusca are in some cases polished, as though by wind 

 action, and this also holds good for the foraminiferal shells. As a 

 rule, however, the niolluscan shells are dull and slightly weathered 

 without being greatly worn. The finer siftings consist of abraded 

 and polished sand-grains consisting of chips of the larger shells, 

 echinoid fragments and foraminiferal tests, thus Indicating a 

 certain amount of aeolian action or sand-dune conditions. 



-3. — •Organic Contents. 



Order FORAMINIFERA. 



Rotalia heccarii, Linne sp. 



yatitilus htccarii, Linne, 1767, Syst. Nat., 12th ed., p. 



1162; 1788, ibid, 13th (Gmelin's) ed., p. 3370, No. 4. 

 Rotalia beccarii, L. sp., Chapman, 1907, Journ. Quekett 

 Micr. Club, ser. 2, vol. X., p. 139. 



This widely distributed and even cosmopolitan form is repre- 

 sented here by a fairly large series. Its presence indicates a sliallow- 

 water or shore-line deposit with estuarine influence. As a fossil it 

 is commonly found in Victoria in similar shallow water facies. from 

 the Kalimnan (Lower Pliocene) upwards, but there is also one 

 record of the species from the earlier series, the Janjukian, of 

 Waurn Ponds, by Mr. Howchin. That authority has also recorded 

 R. heccarii from the Kalimnan of Nor'- West Bend, Murray River ; 

 from the W. end of Torrens Lake, Adelaide; and from the upper 

 beds of Muddy Creek. Howchin also found it in the Upper 

 Pliocene of Dry Creek, South Australia, and in the Post-tertiary 

 of Port Adelaide. "1 One of us has also noted R. heccarii in the 

 Mallee bores from all three horizons, of Janjukian, Kalimnan and 

 Werrikooian.2 



The condition of the tests shows this species to have lived in a 

 congenial habitat, the estuarine influence having been supplied by 

 the Hopkins or equivalent stream, probably before its mature 

 river bed had been disturbed by the local uplifts due to volcanic 

 activity in the western district. 



1 See Rep. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Adelaide, 1893, pp. 351, 352. 



2 Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, vol. xxvii. (n.s.), pt. i., 1914, p. 60. 



