THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 155 



were looked on, not as the remains of animals and plants which 

 had once lived, but as objects the completion of whose creation 

 had been interrupted, while many of the concretions which 

 roughly imitated living objects were regarded as still more 

 unfinished organisms. Still deeper than the highly ferruginous 

 layer, which contains not only its proper amount of iron but also 

 a good deal of that of the overlying beds, we come to a series of 

 fairly soft reddish-brown sandy clays, interstratified with bands of 

 drifted shells, and abounding in echinoids, chiefly Lovenia Jorhesi^ 

 As is usual in permeable beds of this nature, the shells are much 

 decomposed and require careful work to get out in anything like 

 a perfect condition ; on drying, however, they harden a good deal 

 and can then be handled with a reasonable amount of care. In 

 some places the shells are filled and coated with iron oxide, and 

 in others, at a higher level, we find them represented by beauti- 

 fully perfect casts in fine hard ironstone. In fact, with a little 

 patience, one can trace every stage between a shelly band with 

 little or no iron to a band in which all the lime has disappeared 

 and only casts of the shells remain. 



With regard to the age of the beds some difference of opinion 

 exists. By the survey they are called Pliocene, whilst most 

 geologists who have worked at them during recent years consider 

 them as somewhat older — namely, Miocene. At about sea level 

 we find on digging that a different series of fossils is found, 

 and the limestone pebbles on the beach when broken open 

 also yield these older forms, which are of Eocene age, or, 

 as the survey would prefer to regard them, of Miocene. For a 

 long time the fossils of these two sets of strata were here confused, 

 and, consequently, the whole of the beds were regarded as older 

 than they really are. 



A few fossils were collected, but all appear to be forms which 

 have previously been recorded from the section, so there is no 

 need to mention any, except, perhaps, a species of Balanus found 

 by one of the party. Fossil species of this genus are incapable of 

 identification for the most part, as the " operculum " is generally 

 missing, but the species found is very like B. tintinnabidum, and 

 most likely is that species. 



Knowing as we do that the beds are sandy and are represented 

 by white sands in their upper parts, we can see that they spread 

 over a large extent of country. They flank round the South Mel- 

 bourne hill, and underlie the plains of South Yarra and Prahran. 

 All the heathy land from Hawthorn to Frankston is made of 

 sandy beds of this kind, and almost anywhere we should on 

 sinking come on the red beds with their casts of fossils, and, 

 perhaps, on shelly bands themselves. Lower still we should get 

 in many places pockets and patches of the Eocene, and then we 

 should strike Silurian. Here and there, as at South Yarra, 



