THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 157 



and shelly marls, with an abundance of fossils ; 2nd, a series of 

 ferruginous sandstones, with ironstone bands, and no fossils ; 

 3rd, a deposit of sand coarser, and usually less firmly cemented, 

 than the lower rocks — grey, white, yellow, and red in colour — 

 which I have, in what follows, referred to as the lower sand ; 

 4th, a second deposit of loose white sand, referred to in what 

 follows as the upper sand, with a layer of recent shells at the top, 

 principally mussels. These do not appear directly over each 

 other at one place, but by a fold in the rocks are shown in 

 succession. Following the coast from Rickard's Point to 

 Mentone, the upper sand is almost or quite continuous, and 

 unaffected by the fold, but in the others the following changes 

 occur : — At first we see the ferruginous sandstones, the second 

 series above mentioned, overlaid by the lower sand. Going 

 towards Beaumaris the strata rise gradually, the lower sand 

 becomes thinner and soon appears only in patches ; the greater 

 part of the cliffs is formed of the ferruginous sandstones below 

 it, and the fossiliferous rocks below it appear at the surface. 

 Then the rocks are sharply bent over, dipping S. 20 E., at about 

 30 at the steepest part, being much cracked and slightly faulted. 

 The lower sand re-appears, dipping with the underlying rocks, 

 which with part of them sink below the beach. The strata then 

 soon resume a horizontal position, and then dip at a low angle in 

 the opposite direction. At the end of Charman's-road the upper 

 sand can be seen resting on the denuded edges of the strata of 

 the lower sand. The fossiliferous beds at the bottom of the 

 series appear nowhere else at the surface in this district, but have 

 been passed through in bores at Mordialloc, at a depth of about 

 130 feet, and appear to be about 45 feet in thickness. 



The second series, consisting of ferruginous sandstones with a 

 thickness of about 70 feet, appears at intervals along the coast, 

 forming the base of nearly all the points, which seem to be due 

 to their greater resistance to the action of the sea. At the end 

 of Park-street, Brighton, they contain a few fossils similar to 

 those found at the Royal Park ; and a few casts of small shells 

 also appear at the Red Bluff, Sandringham, and to the north of 

 Black Rock. At the Red Bluff I also obtained from this bed a 

 portion of a tree, about 5 feet long, 4 inches thick vertically, and 

 9 inches wide. From the nature of the wood it appears to be a 

 conifer. 



The surface of these ferruginous sandstones is more or less 

 eroded, and on it rests the next series — the lower sand. This 

 is the most extensively developed deposit throughout the 

 district. Between Beaumaris and Mentone these rocks form 

 cliffs about 60 feet high, and allowing for the part which is seen 

 to disappear below, at the fold at the end of Charman's-road 

 must have a thickness of over 100 feet. The lower parts are of 



