Occurrence of recent Shells in the fossil state near Melbourne. 113 



sides with an inconspicuous tubercle. Elytra oblong, shoulders 

 prominent, but the apex of the cone largely truncated, with the 

 posterior edge of the truncature projecting; surface coarsely 

 punctured, blackish, streaked with reddish tawny, behind the 

 middle tawny streaked with black, the tawny part separated 

 from the anterior darker portion by a pale-ochreous fascia. 

 Body beneath tawny, middle of abdomen black. Legs tawny, 

 sprinkled with black, base of claw-joint reddish. 

 Para. 



[To be continued.] 



XL — On the Occurrence of Limopsis Belcheri, Corbula sulcata, 

 and some other recent Shells in the fossil state in Miocene 

 Tertiary Beds near Melbourne. By Frederick M'Coy, Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Science in the University of Melbourne, and 

 Director of the Melbourne National Museum, &c. 

 Having occupied myself lately, in my capacity of Palaeontologist 

 to the Geological Survey of Victoria, with the investigation of 

 the Tertiary fossils collected by the Survey Staff from the strata 

 of Bird-Rock Bluff, near the mouth of Spring Creek, about 

 fifteen miles south of Geelong, I was much struck with the 

 geographical distribution of the very few recent species found 

 associated with the large majority of extinct species in a rich 

 fossil fauna unmistakeably of the Lower Miocene age. The 

 whole facies of the fossil contents of these beds resembles closely 

 that of the Lower Miocene beds of Doberg (near Biinde, West- 

 phalia), Malta, and some other European beds of the same age, 

 as well as the so-called Upper Eocene North- American beds 

 near Vicksburg on the Mississippi ; and many of the genera, as 

 well as the great majority of the species, are extinct. Amongst 

 the extinct genera of shells, Aturia amongst the Nautili may be 

 mentioned as conspicuous; and amongst Fishes, Carcharodon 

 may be mentioned as an abundant Upper Eocene and Miocene 

 genus of Sharks, not more than one species of which is found 

 in our present seas, represented by the two best-known and 

 most widely distributed Eocene and Miocene species found 

 abundantly in such strata in England, Germany, and other parts 

 of continental Europe, and in North America, namely, the 

 Carcharodon megalodon (Ag.), specimens of which occur in our 

 Spring-Creek beds (though not very commonly) perfectly iden- 

 tical with those from Malta or England, or the supposed Eocene 

 beds of South Carolina, or the Miocene beds of Virginia and 

 Maiyland, — and the Carcharodon angustidens (Ag.), which occurs 

 abundantly in our Austrahau beds so perfectly identical with 

 specimens from the Lower Miocene of Doberg near Biinde, that. 



