, Shell-bed underlying Volcanic Tuff. 13 



In regard to the plant remains of the tuff-beds, it is worth 

 recording- that a block of tuff containing what are probably Euca- 

 lyptus leaves, was obtained by Mr. Hauschildt^ some years ago, when 

 the foundations for the Milk Factory at Bennington were being 

 excavated. Data of age derived from fossil floras of so recent a 

 stage are not, however, of much value, seeing that their types are 

 more persistent than those of animals. Thus the tuffs of Mount 

 Gambler have yielded fronds of the Bracken fern {Pterii< aquilina) 

 and of Baiiksia, practically identical with plants now living in the 

 same locality. 



The Hampden tuffs of the Camperduwn district _, are in all 

 probability of the same age as those of Warrnamlx)ol and have 

 covered ancient swamps such as those of the Pejark Marsh. In 

 samples of this ancient m.ud deposit which were submitted to one of 

 us (F.C.) by Mr. R. H. Walcott, Curator of the Technological 

 Museum, there were found diatomaceous frustules and remains of 

 a species of Ci/penis indistinguishable from the living Cyperus 

 lucid us. 



The extinct marsupial bones found on the shores of the crater 

 lakes of the Camperdown district are probably contemporaneous 

 Avith the tuff beds, as note the opinion of Prof. Sir Baldwin Spencer 

 and Mr. R. H. Walcott regarding those from Lake Colongulac^ : — 

 "No bones have been found in situ as far as we are aware, those 

 found having been picked up on the shores of the lake, but there 

 is no doubt, like those of the Pejark Marsh, that they were origin- 

 ally deposited in a swamp or lagoon which was afterwards buried 

 under the ashes ejected by the neighbouring volcanoes; the bones 

 in tliis instance being subsequently freed by the breaking up of the 

 old bed and cast upon the shores of the lake." 



Summary. 



From the foregoing discussion it may be assumed that : — 

 1. — The shell-bearing l^eds underlying the volcanic tuffs near 

 Warrnambool belong to the same episode as the older dune-rock 

 accumulations of that locality and Sorrento, and the swamp deposits 

 under the tuffs of the Camperdown district. 



1 This specimen, presented by Mr. Hauschildt, is now in the National Museum and can be seen 

 in the wall-case of the Australian Gallery. 



2 Mem. Geol. Surv. Vict., No. 9, 1810. "Geology of the Camperdown and Mount Elephant 

 District." Grayson and Mahony, p. 6. 



3 Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, vol. .xxiv. (n.s.), pt. i., 1911, p. 114. 



