520 Reviews — The Geological Survey of Victoria. 



that the Paleeozoic fossils (inckiding a Lepidodendron) , said to have 

 come from the same beds, have in reality been obtained from different 

 strata, A paleontologist would no doubt be incluaed to assume that 

 such was the case ; but, as all the New South Wales geologists aver 

 the contrary, the assumption cannot be admitted as a valid argument^ 

 although there is doubtless something yet to be discovered explana- 

 tory of this strange association, and that something may turn out to 

 be some admixture of the fossils or confusion of the beds, the proba- 

 bility of which is increased by the recent discovery of, to all appear- 

 ance, a Tertiary (!) shell, thirty feet above the Newcastle (N.S.W.) 

 coal and three hundred feet below the sirrface. 



We might almost declare that Australian j)al£eontologists are toil- 

 ing under a Jurassic incubus, for is it moi'e strange to find Zamites and 

 Tceniopteris associated "with Gomdaria, Fenestella and Orthoceras, than 

 a " costate " Trigonia in the Tertiary formation ? And the Jurassic 

 element did not entirely disappear even in the Tertiary period, for 

 it lingers still in the terrestrial fauna of the island-continent. 



The strata termed Mesozoic by Prof. M'Coy, and mapped as 

 Oolitic by Mr. Selwyn, comprise all, or nearly all the coal-bearing 

 rocks of Victoria ; the maps show that they occupy a considerable 

 area in the colony, and bituminous seams of coal are stated to have 

 been found at several localities, although we believe that in Victoria 

 they have not yet been profitably worked, owing, probably, to the 

 high price of labour. The series yields, however, a light-yellow 

 banded sandstone, which is soft and easy to work, and becomes 

 harder on exposure to the atmosphere. In some localities these 

 properties, with its extreme durability and lightness of colour, con- 

 stitute it a valuable and ornamental lauildiug stone (Sheet 9 S.W., 

 note 8) ; but at Port Arlington it exfoliates so rapidly as to be quite 

 useless for economic j)urposes. 



The Tertiary deposits are the most varied in character and the 

 most prolific in fossils of all the sedimentary rocks of Victoria ; they 

 possess also an unusual interest from the fact of their necessarily 

 being the key to the origin of the recent fauna and flora of the Aus- 

 tralian region. In Australia, and to a less extent in the seas which 

 sun'ound it, we find at the present day the nearest allies to those 

 animals which were dominant in Europe during the Oolitic period. 

 The question therefore arises, how far can these Marsupials,. 

 Trigonice-, etc, be traced back in the Australian region ? Having 

 seen that the Mesozoic strata are so imperfectly represented in 

 Victoria, it is important to state, for the satisfaction of the philoso- 

 phical naturalist, that the Tertiary deposits occur in great variety ,. 

 are very fossiliferous, and will, doubtless, some day yield important 

 results bearing on many recondite palseontological questions. The 

 Geological Survey of Victoria have already named certain strata 

 Post Pliocene, Newer Pliocene, Older Pliocene, Miocene, and 

 Eocene (Mt. Eliza Beds) ; but although these names probably 

 represent the order of succession which they have inter se, it may 

 be questioned whether any data are yet known which would war- 

 rant their correlation, even homotaxeously, with the , similarly 



