120 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST 
found, and these ranges were certainly not submerged in tertiary 
times, nor indeed was Arapiles itself, though it must haye been 
surrounded | oy the miocene sea, which was there but a shallow one, 
not extending to the ranges south and east of it. The near proximity 
of the sea is made manifest by the finding of miocene shells at a 
distance of only three miles from this mountain. During the 
sinking of a well on Mr. J. Keyte’s farm, on the eastern side of 
Arapiles, perfect miocene fossils were met with at a depth of seventy 
feet, amongst which were Voluta anti-c’ngulata, small cowries, and 
other shells similar to those of the well-known miocene beds in other 
parts of Victoria. Again, in the neighbourhood of Harrow, at Tea 
Tree Creek, on the margin of a belt of serub, casts of Cucullea 
Corioensis, Cyprea platypiga, and numerous other tertiary fossils 
occur in iron stone lying on the surface of the ground. 
The areas in which tertiary fossils are abundant, are thus separated 
by sandy strips of non-fossiliferous country, and the inference may, 
T think, be fairly drawn, that these last represent the sites of ancient 
ranges which were never entirely sunk beneath the waves of the 
mgcene sea. They were most likely actual lines of low sandstone 
hills rising above the waters, and forming long, narrow, rocky 
islands and peninsulas on the margin of the old coast line, which 
was probably not far from the present Black range on the east, 
and the table-land of Dundas on the south. This table-land, from 
which rises the Dundas range, must then have overlooked a wide 
expanse of water to the north west, and south of it. Farther west, 
there would be a gradual deepening of the ancient sea, as is shown 
by the thickness of the limestone beds as the South Australian 
border is reached. The Rey. J. T. Woods, in his ‘ Geological 
Observations,” thinks that an arm of the sea formerly divided what 
is now the continent of Australia into two parts, and that the Gulf 
of Carpentaria was then connected with the Southern Ocean. The 
portion of Victoria now under consideration would, of course, be its 
south-eastern boundary, a view which accords thoroughly with the 
position of the fossil beds occurring in it. 
The relation of these to the old shore line will be more fully 
treated of in the sequel, under the head of ‘ Tertiary Rocks 
The waters of the miocene sea would doubtless undermine and 
carry away a great part of the sandstone cliffs of the islands and 
peninsulas, which, I have said, skirted the coast line, but after the 
upheaval of the land had taken place, chains of hills still remained 
untouched by the waves. These however, were subsequently so 
completely worn down by the degrading action of the atmosphere, as to 
leave nothing but non-fossiliferous strips of barren sand to mark 
their former existence. 
Such is the theory which I venture to propose to account for 
most of the sand in this part of the colony. 
