92 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



kindly furnished these, together with a plan of his estate, and the 

 information thus obtained is embodied in this paper. 



Before, however, describing the occurrence, it may not be out 

 of place to give a brief general outline of the geology of the 

 surrounding districts. 



As early as 1865, the late Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, in a report* 

 dated 13th March, 1865, referred to the Cape Otway area as one 

 which " seems to have been, if not an island, an elevated portion 

 of the sea bottom during the deposition of the Miocene strata." 

 (These strata have more lately been regarded as Oligocene and 

 Eocene.) 



He was thus of the opinion that between the Otway Jurassic 

 area and the central watershed of Victoria fossiliferous beds of 

 this system were hidden from view. 



Later on Mr. R. A. F. Murray, F.G.S., speaks f of the Otway 

 area on the west, and the South Gippsland area on the east, as 

 having been separated from the mainland by two straits during 

 Lower Cainozoic times. 



This wide belt of country forms the plains of the Western 

 district of Victoria — that great volcanic stretch, consisting of 

 numbers of flows of basalt and beds of volcanic ash, among which 

 numerous old craters, such as Mounts Porndon, Leura, Elephant, 

 Noorat, Shadwell, Rouse, Napier, Eccles, and Tower Hill, rear 

 themselves, and form such prominent features in the landscape. 

 This country has been appropriately referred to by Mr. T. S. 

 Hall, M.A.,i as the Victorian Puys, from i'.s resemblance to the 

 well-known Puys of Auvergne, France. 



Taking a line running roughly north from the eastern edge of 

 the Otway Jurassic region at Point Castries, we find it following 

 approximately the Barwon River, along the middle part of its 

 course ; thence along the Yarrowee or Leigh River towards 

 Ballarat to Elaine. 



From this line westward to a line running approximately north 

 from Portland to near Digby this wide expanse of volcanic rock 

 occurs, with a length of about 140 miles, and a mean width of 

 about 40 miles. 



The area is bounded on the west by the post-Cainozoic 

 deposits of Normanby, overlying the marine Cainozoics of the 

 Glenelg valley ; on the north by the Jurassic area of the Wannon, 

 the Upper Palaeozoic and Older Cainozoic to Recent deposits of 

 Dundas, the pre-Ordovician and Ordovician rocks of Villiers, 

 and by the granite, and Ordovician and Recent sediments of 



* Report of the Director of the Geol. Sur., Vict., ior period from June, 1S63, 

 to Sept., 1864, with Appendices, Vict. Pari. Papers, 1864-5. 

 + " Geology and Physical Geography of Victoria," Melbourne, 1895, ]). 102. 

 + Handbook of the Aust. Assoc, for Advancement of Science, Melbourne 

 meeting, igoo, p. 29. 



