192 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



water deposits. Also, in the imperatively important work of 

 defining the fossil faunas of our Tertiary strata, which, by the 

 way, will favourably compare with the rich deposits of Italy and 

 Spain and the West Indian Islands. A word of warning is here 

 necessary to amateur workers. In sifting the material be perfectly 

 certain that you do not invalidate your results by the accidental 

 inclusion of a few grains of another deposit which may have been 

 retained in the sieves ; and it is a good rule to carefully clean 

 the sieves before putting them aside. Further, never waste time 

 on a deposit of doubtful horizon or locality, for good material is 

 plentiful, and there are benevolent collectors of the larger fossils 

 who are only too glad to find someone who can make a good 

 use of their fossil cleanings. 



Recent Victorian Foraminifera. — Our shore-lines afford a 

 perfect harvest of foraminiferal shells, if searched at the right 

 time and in the quieter indents. The shore sands of Hobson's 

 Bay contain Polystomella macella and Miliolina seminulum in 

 great abundance, together with some Spiroloculinse, whilst the 

 finer, silty portion, such as may be found adherent to the piles 

 of piers and groynes, on the information of Mr. F. Barnard, sen., 

 is full of the delicate bottle-shaped shells of the Lagence and the 

 plaited shells of the minute hyaline Bolivince. The shore-sands 

 of Altona Bay are especially rich in the Polymorphince, some of 

 the specimens showing the curious oral outgrowth (fistulose 

 condition) which appears to lead, morphologically, to the form 

 Ramulina. Many beautiful and delicate species of Foraminifera 

 may be collected on the retreating tide at Beaumaris, where, also, 

 there is a large proportion of the carapaces of Ostracoda belong- 

 ing to the genera Fontocypris, Bairdia, Cythere, and Gylherella. 

 Not much attention has been directed to the deeper water fauna 

 of Victoria and the vicinity, but the writer has now some material 

 in hand from the trawler " Endeavour," which is giving very 

 interesting results, and which will be embodied in a report to be 

 published under the auspices of the National Museum. 



Tertiary Foraminijera. — These are so important and deeply 

 interesting as a whole, that time will not permit to do more than 

 just mention the directions in which our investigations, up to the 

 present, point us. One striking feature in the Tertiary foramini- 

 teral fauna is the absence of the Nummulite from the Australasian 

 region, although the genus occurs elsewhere in the Upper 

 Oligocene, the age of which I take our oldest beds to be. The 

 larger part of our Tertiary deposits, from the standpoint of the 

 megascopic foraminiferal types, are comparable with the 

 Miocene ot the South of Europe, Asia, and the East Indian 

 Archipelago, as well as parts of the West Indies. This is seen 

 in the occurrence of certain forms restricted to definite geological 

 horizons, as in the genus Lepidocyclina. 



Another interesting point brought out by the study of the 



