52 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



EXCURSION TO KEILOR. 

 On the 24th of May a party of four met at Spencer-street a little 

 before 1 1 o'clock. We had not decided whether to take the 

 train to St. Albans and walk across the plain to Keilor, or to go 

 to Essendon and there engage a cab which would carry us out to 

 the township. As we found our party a small one, we decided 

 on the former alternative. When we reached St. Albans we 

 found that the open basaltic country, dreary at the best of times, 

 was not a very pleasant place with a strong northerly gale blow 

 ing. Having previously noted that the direction in which we 

 wanted to go bore N. 37 E. from the station, we took a compass 

 observation and began our march. After about a couple of miles 

 we reached the road leading down into Green Gully and across 

 it to Keilor. Going down the hill, we soon found ourselves below 

 the level of the volcanic rock which forms the great expanse of 

 the Keilor Plains. Immediately under this occurred a sheet of 

 quartzite, the sand which formed the bed having been by some 

 means cemented together by silica. This rock proved to be very 

 hard, but a few chips were broken off, and three of the excursion- 

 ists puzzled over its nature for some time, but at last hit on its 

 composition. This bed of quartzite was observed to be fairly 

 horizontal in position, and its outcrop made the hill some- 

 what steep where it occurred. In a small gully under this 

 bed was found a large outcrop of clay. As the leader again 

 declined to give any information as to its nature, the rest of the 

 party had perforce to spend some time in its examination. One 

 of them called to mind that it resembled clays which occurred in 

 the Royal Park cutting, which had been there proved on a pre- 

 vious excursion to be the product of decomposition of the Older 

 Volcanic rock. Further evidence was soon found, and later on 

 a quarry in the hard bluestone showed our determination to be 

 correct. On going down the creek, traversing the hill-side at a 

 slightly lower level than before, a patch of limestone was found. 

 So closely did the creamy colour of this rock accord with that 

 of the decomposed basalt, that it was not until some fossils 

 were noted that it was pronounced to be limestone. Fossils 

 of a readily identifiable nature were scarce, but it was seen 

 that the limestone consisted almost entirely of polyzoa and 

 foraminifera. Towards the top of this five-foot band the beds 

 grew more gritty, and were overlain by sands cemented together 

 and stained a red ochre colour by oxide of iron ; above this again 

 lay the quartzites, and, capping everything, the youngest bed of 

 all, the Newer Basalt. A little further down stream it was found 

 that the limestone had disappeared, and that the iron-stained sands 

 were thicker. A search for fossils in the loose blocks that strewed 

 the hill face soon resulted in the finding of some casts or prints 

 of fossils in the rock. These were of Eocene age. After lunch 



