this feature. The rock referred to is ?i feldspar basalt, and 

 is easily distinguished from the less valuable diabase, or 

 Augite-grecnstone, which gives such a peculiar character to 

 the crests of our mountain chains, particularly Ben Lomond 

 and Mount Wellington. The latter rock was formerly 

 supposed to be a Diorite, or Hornblende G-reenstone, and 

 Prof. Ulrich, who pointed out this fact, states that " this may 

 explain its non-auriferous character." 



Through the praiseworthy labours of R. A. F. Murray, A. 

 W. Howitt, Norman Taylor, Daintree, Brough Smythe, 

 and other Australian geologists, abundant materials for the 

 determination of the Tertiary beds have been gathered together, 

 and, recently, in the hands of leading palaeontologists they 

 have yielded important results. From the writings of the 

 gentlemen named I learn that the extensive fluviatile and 

 lacustrine formations in Australia, particularly at Haddon, 

 Bacchus Marsh, Malmsbury, Daylesford, Werribee, Beech- 

 worth, Tangil River, Gulgong, Richmond River, Orange 

 River, and in the Darling Downs, Queensland, are the 

 equivalents of similar deposits in Tasmania at Beaconsfield, 

 Nine Mile Springs, Muddy Creek, Tamar, Breadalbane, 

 Avoca, included within my definition of the Launceston 

 Tertiary Basin, and also of the yellow limestone of Geilston 

 Bay, Hobart Town, and the leaf beds of Macquarie Harbour. 

 These freshwater deposits are undoubtedly of vast extent 

 and of great thickness. The relations of the isolated though 

 closely related groups of beds cannot be definitely ascer- 

 tained, nor, when we take into consideration existing 

 distribution of particular vegetable and animal forms, can 

 we hope to draw sharp inferences in regard to their exact 

 sequence. The preponderance of proteaceous forms in one 

 locality, or of coniferous remains in another, give no clue to 

 chronological sequence. It may only indicate the existence 

 of varied forms of contemporaneous vegetable life under, 

 perhaps, slightly altered circumstances as regards area, soil, 

 or altitude. 



No better conception of the restriction of particular forms 

 to certain areas can be had than from a glance at the 

 distribution of existing local well known forms, e.g., in vege- 

 tation take Fagus Cunninghami, Frenela australis, Anodopet 

 alum higlandu losum, Arthrotaxis cupressiformis. Acacia 

 dralbata, Eucalyptus globulus, Banksia serrata; in land 

 mollusca, take Helix Launcestonensis, H. antialba, H. Weldii, 

 H. Pidilis, H. Bischoffensis, H. Lampra, and Bidimus Tas- 

 manicus. I am of opinion, with respect to land and fresh- 

 water contemporaneous remains, that we ought to expect 

 greater local difference in separate areas than in more widely 

 separated contemporaneous areas of marine formations. 



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