103 
correct, though [ am still unconvinced that the two set of fossils 
did not come from the same place or within reasonable contiguity ; 
so much alike are they, that it may be said that they are 
duplicates. 
The remarkable diversity of composition and mechanical con- 
dition of the Older Tertiary rocks make it possible in the majority 
of cases to refer specimens to their original site. Table Cape — 
fossils are distinctive; so also are those from Spring Creek, 
River Murray Cliffs, Aldinga Bay, and so on. It is only in the 
case of the fossils of the soft clays, or those of the friable polyzoal 
limestones that localities cannot safely be assigned. The fossils. 
from the Murray Desert do not resemble those of any known 
locality yielding Older Tertiary fossils. But they do resemble 
those of the Pliocene beds in the Dry Creek and Croydon bores, 
near Adelaide; the similitude being heightened by the common 
occurrence in the Murray Desert horizon of some of the most 
abundant fossils in the Pliocene beds obtained from the bores 
just named. However, the Tareena collection from the Murray 
Desert was in my hands four years before the bore at Dry Creek 
revealed the concealed fossiliferous bed of Pliocene age, which 
fact dispels any doubt as to such being a source of supply; more- 
over, the white calcareous sand forming the matrices of the 
Murray Desert fossils is so largely admixed with grains of 
glauconite as to impart a pepper-and-salt coloration to the 
whole. This is distinctive. 
The main point of interest about these fossils is the uncertain 
data they afford as to their horizon ; and the interest therein has 
been increased through certain correlative discoveries made of 
late, such as the occurrence of certain so-called Eocene fossils in 
the Pliocene of the Dry Creek bore, that of characteristic 
Miocene species in Eocene beds, and the indications at the 
Murray Desert and some other localities in Victoria and Tas- 
mania of a fauna intermediate between typical Eocene, such as. 
Muddy Creek, and typical Miocene, such as around the Gipps- 
land Lakes. 
Though the age of the Murray Desert fossils is not actually 
assigned in my earlier Monographs, yet Eocene is implied; but 
in my last one, Part IV., Gasteropoda, 1893, I remark under 
Natica gibbosa, “the age is doubtfully Miocene.” The additional 
material brought to my notice by Dr. Torr raises the total of 
species from 27 to 40, and the number is sufficiently great to 
permit of an attempt to correlate the fauna with those of other 
localities and horizons. 
