1900.] FOSSIL MARSUPIAL FROM TASMANIA. 777 



embedded in the ' Turritella-zone ' of the marine beds at Table 

 Cape " \ Unfortunately it is far from being nearly perfect. 



Table Cape itself is a promontory near to the little township of 

 Wynyard and looks out northwards across Bass Strait. Close to 

 it are two small bluffs, from one of which ' 2 the specimen was 

 obtained. The bluff is about 160 feet high, with a capping of 

 basalt, beneath which lie the Tertiary beds, which in their turn rest 

 on Silurian slates. The upper Tertiary beds, called by Johnston 

 the " Turritella-zone," are about 80 feet where fully exposed and 

 contain in addition to marine forms leaf -impressions. The same 

 author says : " With respect to the occurrence of the plant-remains 

 amongst marine forms, it is most probable that the calcareous 

 sandstones were formed at the mouth of an estuary or river, and 

 that the leaves and other land organisms were washed down and 

 included with the marine forms. This interpretation also throws 

 some light upon the discovery of the almost complete skeleton 

 of the species of Halmaturus already derived from the calcareous 

 sandstone." In regard to the underlying Crassatella-bed, he says : 

 " It hardly deserves to be considered as distinct from the Turritella 

 group which rests immediately upon it, were it not for the fact that 

 it appears to have been accumulated under different circumstances." 



Pritchard 3 says in regard to the collection of shells studied by him 

 that it " came principally from the lower deposits known as the 

 Crassatella-beds, and judging from the fossils I regard the zone as 

 the direct equivalent of the so-called middle beds of the Spring 

 Creek section in Victoria. The coarseness of the material in which 

 a number of the Table Cape fossils is preserved, the worn character 

 of many of the species, and the abundance of fragments of shells 

 clearly indicate the littoral character of the deposit, and as an 

 attendant fact of some importance we have certain faunal 

 characteristics indicative of the same feature." 



In their suggested arrangement of the sequence of the Eocene 

 rocks of Victoria, Messrs. Hall and Pritchard place the Spring 

 Creek beds at the base of the series 4 . 



The block of sandstone, as it was originally found, had broken 

 off from the face of the bluff and tumbled down to the base, which 

 was sin-rounded, when the author visited the spot in 1892 in 

 company with Professor Tate, with masses of varions sizes strewn 

 about in all directions. Evidently this fall from the upper part 

 of the bluff had smashed the block in such a way as to partially 

 expose the fossil, and subsequent weathering resulted unfortunately 

 in the breaking off of the lower part of the skull ; though it is 

 quite possible that considerable damage had been done to the skull 

 before it was embedded, as the part of the lower jaw enclosed in 

 the matrix, and so not exposed to recent weathering, has all of 



1 Pp. 261, 288 et seq. 



2 Figured and described by Mr. Johnston, up. cit. pp. 258 ct seq. 



3 Proc. E. S. Viet. 1895, p. 77. 



4 Proc. E. S. Vict. 1894, p. 180. " The older Tertiaries of Maude with an 

 indication of the sequence of the Eocene Eocks of Victoria." 



