14 



Moonlight Head and thence to Cape Otway. Though not 

 agaiu seen to the east of the Cape for more than 40 miles, 

 there can be little doubt that it was once continuous from 

 Moonlight Head, to Point Addis. The cliffs on the coast near 

 Spring Creek, 16 miles south of Geelong, expose a thickness 

 of about 300 feet of miocene strata. The upper portion of 

 the sez'ies is nearly 100 feet in thickness, consisting chiefly of 

 yellow sandy limestone, the calcarious portion composed almost 

 entirely of polyzoa and fragments of echini spines. The 

 characteristic fossils are Cellefora Gamhierensis, Busk, Eemi- 

 jpatagus Forlesii, Duncan, and the little Terehratula compta. 

 Sow. — The middle series, which is about 150 feet thick, con- 

 sists of soft, blue, brown, or yellow sandy clays. Bivalve 

 shells are characteristic of these beds, the most common of 

 which are Pectunculus laticostatus, Quoy. The fossils from the 

 lower beds Professor M'Coy regards as belonging to the Upper 

 Eocene. 



" We find next Miocene occupying the base of the cliff's, 

 about a mile and a half west of the Aire river. Here occurs a 

 plant bed 17ft. thick, containing fossil leaves. This bed 

 consists of dark, almost black, argillaceous clay, with crystals 

 of selenite, and the crevices filled with a yellow substance, 

 determined to be basic sulphate of iron. This bed rests on 

 miocene strata, with fossils soon covered over with more recent 

 tertiary fossils, almost exclusively polyzoa, and a large Pecten 

 {ILinnites Coriensis M'Coy ?) Here a fossil seal's tooth was 

 found (Phoeodon WilJcinsoni M'Coy ?) which Professor M'Coy 

 regarded as belonging to the same species as that found in 

 the miocene of Malta." 



I need not C[uote the abstract further. I only want to draw 

 attention to the leading tertiary deposits found in Australia. 



1. The polyzoan limestone, with Hemipatagus Forhesii and 

 Cellepora Gamhiei'ensis. 2. Brown clays and sandstones, with 

 Pecten laticostatus, &c. 3. Plant beds, with leaves of species 

 not belonging to the existing flora, highly ferruginous, and 

 interstratified with mud, sand, lava, and volcanic ash. 



The fossils in the Museum of the Society appear to me to 

 be taken from beds belonging to the lower part of No. 1, and 

 the uj:iper part of No. 2. There are also plants taken from a 

 bed similar to No. 3, and I have but little doubt that the plants 

 recently described by Mr. Johnson in your last year's Trans- 

 actions will be found to belong to the same age. 1 now proceed 

 to describe the fossils. 



1. Cellepora Gamhierensis Busk. — This fossil was named by 

 Dr. Busk sixteen years ago, from specimens furnished by me ; 

 but as no diagnosis has ever been given, I proceed to describe 

 the species myself. Polyzoary, large cylindrical branching 



