88 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



there were collected several " mills " of basalt and stones of 

 basalt, greenstone, and porphyry, and chips of porphyry, quartz, 

 and opal, &c. It is not claimed that this sandy deposit is of any 

 great age ; it may be, and certainly is if it was laid down by the 

 river, but it may have been blown from the sand of the table land, 

 or washed down by rains. The mills found here are formed from 

 large pieces of basalt, hollowed out sometimes on both sides, at 

 others only on one. The stones used in the manufacture of 

 hatchets were greenstone and porphyry. This sandy deposit is 

 most interesting. Many rabbit burrows have been dug out, and 

 excavations two or three feet deep occur all over it, and at most 

 of these holes stones and a chip or two may be picked up. 

 Several mills were found, and some were left by the writer as 

 being too heavy to carry. 



The most interesting site at which implements were collected 

 was in the valley of the Wannon, about one mile north of Glen- 

 thompson township. The wind has there blown a hole in a sand- 

 bank, which is partly a terrace of the Wannon and partly a wind- 

 blown formation. The hole is about 40 yards across ; the light 

 particles of sand have been blown away, and the fragments of 

 stone have just sunk and been concentrated on the bottom of the 

 hole. In a short time there were gathered from this hole 280 

 pieces of stone, including flakes and chips of white quartz, 

 quartzite, fossiliferous flint (probably from Portland), common 

 opal from Mount Stavely Range, basalt, dense black basalt 

 resembling a rock at Malmsbury, obsidian, jasper, metamorphic 

 schist, porphyry, Grampian sandstone, and a siliceous breccia 

 resembling a rock at Heathcote. The late Mr. B. Smythe, 

 in his work "The Aborigines of Victoria," describes similar 

 flakes of dense basalt and other stone as being used for knives 

 and spear barbs ; these chips may have been used for forming 

 spears, skinning animals, for awls, and perhaps for opening 

 mussels. The other relics gathered at this spot were — cutting 

 edge of a hatchet, well polished, of porphyry ; portion of 

 hatchet in the rough, of a metamorphic rock ; two sharpening 

 stones of Grampian sandstone; fragment of basalt, indicating that 

 the perfect stone had had a hole drilled through it; several pieces 

 of bone, much altered ; fragments of mussel shells ; and a piece 

 of white pipeclay, which may have been used as a pigment. As 

 the formation has been disturbed, it is rather difficult to say of 

 what age are the implements gathered ; they represent the stones 

 that were in the deposit which was laid down under the water, 

 those that may have been covered by blown sand, and those that 

 were just lying on the surface. The lower part of the formation 

 is apparently a portion of a terrace of the Wannon, but as the 

 surrounding district was not examined no estimate of its relation 

 to the terrace formation of the Hopkins could be formed. 



