60 



and deposits may very possibly be according to the following 

 order : — 



Launceston 

 Tertiary 



Basin. 



tt~^„ i~~~ ! Deposits of Pig Island, Mt. Ste- 



UpperZonej w i Stevenson's Bend. 



™-am 7 a I Windmill Hill beds. ) 



Middle Zone -J Recentbagalt j- 



(Breadalbane, Cleveland, Fingal, 

 Muddy Creek, arenacious clays, 

 x,uw C i ^i Metamorphosed Claystone. 

 I. Older basalt. 



Travertin Beds, Hobart, and 

 raised beach Table Cape 



Beds of the Mount Nicholas, Ben Lomond, 

 coal seams of Jerusalem series. 

 Tasmania. iMersey series. 



3rd. The height of the remains of the original strata of the 

 system indicates that the lake must have stretched over a 

 very wide expanse of country in the direction of the lower 

 valleys and plains, and that its extent must have been not 

 less than 600 square miles. The denundation which has taken 

 place subsequently has also been referred to as being very 

 great. 



Generally. 



The old lake basin carries us back to a time long prior to 

 the recent volcanic period, and is a very important link in the 

 chain connecting us with our Tasmanian coal measures. The 

 Lower Zone, with its many hundred feet of whitish arenacious 

 clays, and intercalated lignites, speak of a time of long con- 

 tinued repose, and of a time sufficiently remote to antedate 

 the present characteristic vegetation of our island. 



Certainly we might here and there trace a representative of 

 our existing Banhsia, and possibly a few near relations to our 

 pines and ferns, but the vegetation fringing the margins of 

 this magnificent expanse of water, would appear very different 

 to that which we are now accustomed to see; and if we may judge 

 from the character and abundance of the leaf remains, the 

 landscape must have presented a scene of wondrous beauty. 



Whether those forests ever echoed tbe " Cooey" of some 

 ancient race of man, or whether the quiet waters of the lake 

 were ever disturbed by some primitive paddle, there is no 

 intelligence. The record of the rocks are as silent as are the 

 voices of that race which, with the exception of a solitary 

 individual, has just passed away. 



