42 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



remains in Tasmania, Mr. J. Bonwick observes, in his Daily Life 

 of the Tasmanians , p. 291 : — 



"Notwithstanding Mr. G-ould did good service while Government 

 Geologist, Mr. Wintle has labored freely and nobly in the cause of science, 

 yet the fossil discoveries have not been extensive or satisfactory. There 

 are still wanting in the little island many forms of life revealed on the 

 Continent of Australia." 



The most notable cave is that of Chudleigh, in the Mersey 

 district, on the north-east coast. It consists of a series of 

 extensive chambers excavated by the action of water in fossiliferous 

 limestone, and of Silm'ian age, and is distinguished for its coral 

 remains and its magnificent stalactites and stalagmites — the rock 

 being Icnown as the Chudleigh marble. Although this cavern 

 extends for a distance of three or four miles, it is said, underground, 

 it has furnished nothing in the way of extinct osseous palaeontology 

 up to the present time. The water that carved out this extensive 

 subterreanean vault, ages on ages ago, is still running out at the 

 entrance in a clear, cold stream. Beyond being an eloquent 

 exponent of old-world marine conditions and the result of terrestrial 

 aqueous agency, it is valueless when viewed in connection with. 

 palaeontology. The deposits which have yielded, perhaps, the most 

 interesting fossil bones in the island are the Tertiary fresh water 

 limestone formations, which are regarded as the equivalents of the 

 travertine of Limeburner's Point, near Geelong, and the Pliocene 

 gold drifts of Dunolly, as well as the clays of Back Creek, in 

 Victoria. These deposits have furnished numerous valuable remains 

 of extinct mammals, as well as evidence of the comparatively great 

 antiquity of the Dingo. Their Tasmanian equivalents contain but 

 few fossil bones, and they belong to existing genera and species 

 associated with the remains of plants, frequently in abundance, and 

 land and fresliwater snail shells; while in some few instances, insects 

 and their larva\ chiefly coleopterous, are met with, among which, as 

 occupying a foremost place may be mentioned the water-beetle 

 Dyticus. 



One of the richest in organic remains of these pliocene tertiary 

 travertin deposits is of great historical interest, inasmuch as it is 

 associated with the name of one. which all who now hear me, I am 

 sure, hold in the highest veneration, viz., the late Charles Darwin. 

 It is situated on the eastern bank of the river Derwent, at Geilston 

 Bay, in the district of Richmond. A quarry was opened in it as 

 far back as 1835, by the late Hon. T. G. Gregson, of Tasmanian 

 political renown, for lime burning purposes. It was visited by the 

 undying author of the Origin of Species and Natural Development, 

 when quite a young man he visited these colonies in H.M.S. 

 Beagle, m the capacity of naturalist to that expedition; and it is 

 briefly described by him as being of much interest on account of 

 the perfect state of joreservation of its fossils. The excavation in 



