AGE OF CERTAIN PLANT-BEARING BEDS, 341 



as yet been recorded from the Victorian beds, any comparison with 

 European Tertiary floras must have been of a somewhat slight 

 nature. Then, with regard to the overlying basalt, the officers of 

 the Geological Survey of "\''ictoria determined the age of the so- 

 called ■' Older Basalt " as Miocene, because they say they have 

 observed it overlying marine Miocene beds, the latter said to have 

 been determined upon their fossil contents. Mr. Murray remarks : 

 — *"ThG older volcanic rocks are the latest products, and mark 

 distinctly the close of the Middle Tertiary or Miocene era." In 

 speaking of the basalt of the Dargo and Bogong High Plains, the 

 same authority says : — f '• The basalt or lava forming the high 

 plains is here referred to the older volcanic (Miocene) period, 

 immediately overlying, as it does, sedimentary deposits shown by 

 their fossil flora to be of Miocene or Middle Tertiary age. Objec- 

 tion may be taken to this classification on the ground tluit the fact 

 ijf basalt overlying Miocene deposits does not necessarily prove it 

 to belong to that ejjoch ; but the evidences here are to the effect that 

 the Miocene beds were still in actual progress of deposition when 

 the lava poured over them." At Curlewis, near Geelong, the Older 

 Basalt is distinctly mapped and reported on by Dainiree as over- 

 ling marine Miocene beds. Recently we had an opportunity of 

 visiting this locality, and were surprised to find that the Older 

 Basalt distinctly underlies the so-called Oligocene of the Survey. 

 The fossils we obtained from these clays clearly indicate a lower 

 horizon than Oligocene, most decidedly Eocene, and probably 

 Lower Eocene, as the specimens were almost all identical with 

 species occurring at the typical Eocene localities, such as Muddy 

 Creek and Mornington| ; so that at this locality the " Older 

 Basalt," with its upper surface showing considerable denudation, is 

 clearly anterior to the deposition of the marine Eocene beds. This 

 is also the case at Flinders, where an undoubted marine Eocene 

 limestone rests on the denuded surface of the volcanic rock. On 

 the Otwaj' coast, at Eagle's Nest, a volcanic deposit is recorded, 

 underlyinii Eocene beds (Miocene of Survey). § Other localities 

 showing the same sequence of the rocks have lately come under our 

 notice. 



Mr. Selwyn records|| a section on the Moorabool River, near 

 Maude, where there is a band of older volcanic intercalated between 

 marine Miocene beds, but we have not yet had an opportunity of 

 visiting this locality, and so are not at present prepared to say any- 

 thing further on it. Nowhere, so far as our observations have yet 

 extended, have we observed the " Older Basalt" overlying or inter- 

 calated with the Eocene Series ; so that from the evidence we 

 have thus far adduced it can be clearly seen that the so-called 



* Geo. and Phys. Gco., Vic, p. 109. t Prog. Rep. Geo. Suiv. Vic, No. v., p. 108. 



t Proc. Roy. Soc, Vic, N S., vol. vi. 



? Geological Map of the Cape Otway District ; also, Geelong Naturalist, vol. ii., No. 8, p. 3. 



II Intercol. Exhib. Essay., 1866-67. 



