^91^3'] Chapman, Victorian Fossiliferous Limestones. 141 



well-preserved fossils as foraminifera and pteropods, were 

 noted. 



A passing reference was made to the Mesozoic series repre- 

 sented in other Australian States, and then to the Palaeozoic 

 group, with the vast carboniferous deposits of spirifer, crinoid, 

 and foraminiferal limestones of some northern countries. 



The next oldest formation, the Devonian, is well developed 

 in Victoria. The Buchan limestone makes an excellent marble, 

 and compares favourably with the finest from any other part 

 of the world. Slides were shown to prove its coral reef origin, 

 and a fair idea was gained of the beauty and variety of its 

 corals, as Campophylkim, Favosites, and Cystiphyllum, whilst 

 ostracoda and shell-fish played an important part in building 

 up certain portions of this Devonian marble. The Devonian 

 limestones of Devonshire show similar characters to the Aus- 

 tralian, and in some of them remarkable changes have been 

 set up by subsequent crushing and shearing. 



The Silurian limestones were next reviewed, ' and some 

 weathered and sliced corals, as Favosites, Cyathophyllum, 

 Phillipsastrcea, Columnaria, and Heliolites served to show how 

 exquisitely preserved are some of these calcareous organisms 

 Amongst the smaller fossils of this Silurian system, but none 

 the less interesting, is the series of ostracoda gathered from 

 a piece of rubbly limestone at Cave Hill, which yielded twenty- 

 six species of this group of Crustacea. Seventeen of these were 

 already known to science, the remainder being new. Of the 

 known forms, eleven were Silurian elsewhere, four Ordovician, 

 one Devonian, and one Carboniferous. Among other Silurian 

 limestone localities in Australia, Hatton's Corner, near Yass, 

 is remarkable as containing a rich fossil fauna, which it will 

 take many years to scientifically work over. 



Coming down to the oldest limestone occurrences in Victoria, 

 that found near the Dolodrook River, North-East Gippsland, 

 by our fellow-member, Mr. E. O. Thiele, is of an extremely 

 interesting nature. It dates back to the Upper Cambrian, and 

 its fossil fauna consists of trilobites, a primitive limpet, some 

 brachiopods, and a pellet-forming seaweed, Girvanella, probably 

 related to those primitive plants which form the pebbles and 

 oolite sand on the shores of the Salt Lake, Utah, at the present 

 day. 



A concluding reference was made to the discovery of one of 

 the Archaeocyathinae (a link between sponges and corals) in a 

 little pebble picked up at 85° S. by a member of the Shackleton 

 expedition, and which has so important a bearing on Antarctic 

 geology in proving the southward extension of these ancient 

 Cambrian rocks. 



