Section C. 

 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



1.— NOTES ON THE MACDONNELL RANGES. 

 By H. Y. L. BROWN, F.G.S. 



2.— ON THE AGE OF CERTAIN PLANT-BEARING BEDS 

 IN VICTORIA. 



By T. S. HALL, M.A., and G. B. PRITCHARL). 



In Victoria we have a series of deposits containing- plant 

 remains which have up to the present been generally regarded as 

 of Miocene age. It is onr present intention to bring forward a few 

 facts concerning these beds which, in our opinion, seem to point 

 to the necessity of altering the age to which they should be referred. 



LOCALITIES. 



In the vicinity of J'lemington, not far from the old Model Farm, 

 a deposit of Avhite plastic clay, containing plant imprf ssions, occurs, 

 lying on the denuded surface of the Upi^er Silurian rocks, and 

 underlying the so-called Older Basalt. 



Similar clays, said to belong to the same horizon, are recorded* 

 as occurring on the west side of the Melbourne swamp, near 

 Footscray. 



In Mr. Wilson's quarry, at Berwick, we have fine, somewhat in- 

 durated clays, for the most part of a dark color, yielding numerous 

 plant impressions, underlying the Older Basalt, and resting on the 

 Upper Silurian rocks. Mr. R. A. F. Murray remarksf that 

 " there is no doubt as to the lignites of McKirley's Creek and the 

 Tarwin, in Gippsland, being of Miocene age, because they are 

 overlaid by older volcanic rocks." In these cases also the bed- 

 rock is L'pper Silurian. Ferruginous, sandy, and clayey beds, 

 containing fossil leaves, occur beneath the basalt of the Cobungra 

 High Plains. Similar beds also underlie the basalt of the Dargo 

 High Plains and the Bogong High Plains. J At Bacchus Marsh 



• International Exhibition Essay, by R. Biouffh Smyth. 1873. 



t Geo. and Phys. Geog., Vic, p. 105. 



X Piog. Eep. Geo. Surv. Vic, No. v., p. 96. et seq. 



