October 6, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



187 



No attempt has as yet been made to work out the grap- 

 tolite zones in these rocks, but it seems probable, consid- 

 ering the enormous thickness of the rooks, that such 

 zones will be found. The most plentiful graptolite of the 

 central area is Tetragraptus friiticoaus. Besides this form 

 there are two other species of Dedymograjjtus, Tetragrap- 

 tas quadribrachiatus, T. bryonoides, Dichograptws octo- 

 brachiatus, Loganograpius Logani, Goniograptua Thureaui, 

 Fhijllograptus tijpug, Thamnograptus typus, and some forms 

 apparently referable to Dendrograplus. All these species, 

 it will be remembered, occur in the Quebec group of 

 rocks. A crustacean of common occurrence is Lingulo- 

 caris M'Coyi (R. Etheridge jun.). This is the same as the 

 oft-quoted Hymenocaris Balteri, a manuscript name of 

 Professor M'Coy's. Two species of Frotospongia occur, 

 but are rare. 



The extension of the Bendigo rocks to the southward 

 along the line of strike is cut off by a newer granite, 

 which is about ten miles across. To the south of this 

 again comes the Castlemaine goldfield. The river grav- 

 els of this area, both recent and tertiary, were very rich 

 in gold, but although a few rich "reefs" were found they 

 did not prove of a permanent character, and mining is now 

 at a very low ebb in the district. The structure of the 

 country is similar to that of Bendigo. The anticlines 

 succeed one another very rajDidly, being only about three 

 hundred yards apart, as a rule, and the strike is very con- 

 stant. The main axis of elevation passes through the 

 township of Chewton, about two miles east of Castle- 

 maine, and the lowest beds contain a graptolitic fauna, 

 apparently identical with that of Bendigo. Two or three 

 other zones may be recognized overlying this one. Tetra- 

 graptus fruticosus does not range above the lowest zone. 

 Didymograptus bifidus is the commonest fossil in the next 

 zone, and the problematical Didymograptus ciduceus of 

 Salter marks the next. The other recognized species 

 agree very closely with those of the Quebec group, species 

 of Tetragraptas, Dubograptus, Logarograptuis, Ooneograptus, 

 Temnogi-aptus, Thyllograptus, Dendrograptus and Thamno- 

 graptus occur. 



THE MARINE TERTIARIES OP AUSTRALIA. 



BY T. S. HALL, MA., CASTLEMAINE, AUSTRALIA. 



Tertiary beds of marine origin are extensively developed 

 in the southern portion of Australia, forming a more or 

 less broken fringe along the coastline from the head of 

 the Great Australian Bight to the Snowy River in the east 

 of Victoria. With the exception of a prolongation up the 

 basin of the Murray River they do not extend far from the 

 coastline and attain no great height above the sea. They 

 are absent from the eastern coast of Australia, being ap- 

 parently faulted below sea-level. Till of late years very 

 little has been done towards the elucidation of the fauna, 

 only a few species having been described. Recently, 

 however. Professor Ralph Tate, of Adelaide, has done a 

 great amount of work among the Mollusca and Echino- 

 derms of the series and has enabled several workers to 

 enter the field. The fauna is remarkably rich, especially 

 in the older rocks, and not far short of 2,000 species have 

 been recorded. The limit is far from reached, as fresh 

 forms are coming to light at every new locality visited. 

 Several papers descriptive of the beds as seen in different 

 localites, with more or less imperfect lists of fossils, have 

 ajDpeared in the publications of the Royal Societies of 

 South Australia and of Victoria. The most exhaustive one 

 is by Mr. J. Dennant, on the beds of Muddy Creek, 

 Victoria.* 



More recently Professor Tate and Mr. Dennant have, in 



*Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Australia. 



the same publication, begun the work of correlating the 

 whole series of beds as shown in the two colonies. 



By Professor Sir P. M'Coy the lowest and most widely 

 occurring beds are referred to Oligocene age, and he 

 refers others, which differ lithologically, to the Miocene. 

 Messrs. Tate and Dennant class both as Eocene, and it has 

 been shown that in one locality at any rate the so-called 

 Miocene really underlies the so-called Oligocene. The 

 lists from Muddy Creek, above alluded to, show 511 re- 

 corded species, of which only one and a half per cent are 

 living at the present day. 



The fauna of the older tertiaries presents a more tropi- 

 cal aspect than that found on our coasts at the present 

 day. Murex, Vobeta and Cjprsea are extensively de- 

 veloped and often of gigantic size; the Gypjrwa gigas of 

 M'Coy, for instance, is a very globose form and reaches the 

 length of eight inches. 



The strata consist of sands, clays and limestones, the 

 latter being usually composed in the main of polyzoal 

 remains. In some places an Orbitoides limestone occurs, 

 the chief species being 0. Mantelli. The clays yield the 

 greatest numbers of forms, which in some places are 

 beautifully preserved in a stiff blue clay that cuts like 

 new cheese. 



The Miocene beds of Tate and Dennant are not so ex- 

 tensively develoiaed as the Eocene, while Pliocene beds 

 with marine fossils are still rarer. In many places marine 

 gravels occur, which have been ascribed to this age, but 

 api^arently on very slight grounds. Where they will be 

 placed now is quite uncertain. 



Below the lowest marine beds, and frequently separated 

 from them by a denuded basalt-flow, is, in some places, a 

 series of terrestrial and fresh-water deiDosits with plant 

 remains with beds of lignite. These have, for many years 

 past, been spoken of as Miocene, it is now proposed to 

 remove them to the Cretaceous. It will be a strange 

 thing if we have to wage war in a case so closely compar- 

 able with the Laramie one. 



THE SCIENTIFIC MAN ON THE PARM. 



BY CHARLES B. COOK, OWASSO, MICH. 



For many years the average farmer has been a man of 

 few resources. His city brother has outwitted him in 

 every department of his business. He has availed himself 

 of no opportunity to secure a scientific education, and still 

 worse, his county paper is the only periodical that ever 

 enters his dwelling. As a result he is ignorant of the 

 most vital laws that underlie farm husbandry in all of its 

 branches and "farms it" in a general "go-as-you-please" 

 style. These facts alone are sufficient to account for the 

 farmer's general reputation as a man totally unfit for any 

 other business. To make a bad matter worse, the illiterate 

 farmer is continually belittling his profession to an extent 

 that is limited only by his vocabulary. 



In direct contrast to the above style of farmer the 

 scientific agriculturalist is growing more and more to 

 take hold of the farm, not only as a field for experiment 

 and study, but as a vocation that will generously respond, 

 financially, in direct proportion to the amount of mental 

 force applied; for it is a fact just beginning to dawn on 

 the minds of the public that the farmer's bank account 

 comjjares most favorably with that of his professional 

 brother, and where genuine ability prevails, coupled with 

 a love for the vocation wherein one is called, the farmer's 

 account is likely to run ahead. 



The educated farmer of to-day is placed almost beyond 

 competition, while the lawyer, the mechanic and the 

 doctor find talented competition on every corner. The 

 scientific man's education enables him to make the most 



