238 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXIlt. 



In March, 1905, Mr. Thos. Warr presented a fairly large series 

 of fossil casts and blocks of fossiliferous mudstone to the National 

 Museum, which had been obtained at Kilsyth, about 2 miles from 

 Croydon, on the road between the railway station and Mt. 

 Dandenong, at a depth of 5 feet from the surface. The mudstone 

 is of a pale purple colour, sometimes bleached quite white, and 

 the fossil impressions are stained of a bright ochreous yellow. 

 The texture of the rock varies, and is often as soft as pipe- 

 clay. 



The interest attaching to this collection is two-fold, for not 

 only does it extend the line of outcrop of the Yeringian series, 

 but also adds many additional species to our list of the fauna of 

 this richly fossiliferous set of beds — a series, by the way, which 

 shows an almost entirely different facies from that of the older, 

 Melbournian beds. 



It may seem unfortunate that apparently every particle of 

 calcareous matter has been leached out of the rock, so that we 

 have to deal with impressions, instead of the actual shells. This 

 peculiar condition of the rock, however, is not so adverse to the 

 investigations of the palaeontologist as would at first sight appear, 

 for the moulds and casts are so faithfully preserved as to show 

 every minute granulation on an ostracod valve, or the muscle 

 impressions on the interior of the brachiopod shells. The 

 extreme friability of this particular mudstone renders the handling 

 of the material difficult, as the gentlest touch is often sufficient to 

 remove the sharpness of the cast. This difficulty is overcome to 

 a great extent by quickly dipping the specimens into a hot 

 solution of thin gelatine, for even the use of a soft camel-hair 

 brush on their surfaces is likely to do damage. The rock is so 

 extremely fossiliferous at this locality that a tap of the hammer 

 on a block of the mudstone will frequently reveal a crowded mass 

 of fossil casts consisting of crinoid stems, fenestellids, brachio- 

 pods, bivalves, trilobites, and ostracoda. The abundance of 

 these fossil remains show unmistakably that here, especially, there 

 must have been extensive shell-banks accumulating, probably 

 close to the shore-line of the Yeringian sea, just as there were 

 in the well-known locality of Wenlock Edge, in Shropshire, 

 England. 



The new species of fossils found in the present collection will 

 be described subsequently, as opportunity offers, and meanwhile 

 the subjoined preliminary fist of genera and species, so far as 

 determined, is submitted. The Pelecypoda have already been 

 described in MS. by the author. 



any other, has noted Yerhigian mudstone — first, on the Mooroolbark road, 

 near the entrance to Kinsella's firm ; second, on the old Melbourne road, 

 near top of hill, half a mile above Lilydale (Wilson's) ; third, about 3 miles 

 north of Wilson's, at Hughes's quarry. 



