XIV 



PROCEEDINGS, JUNE. 



guarded himself on this point by explaining that the observations were 

 only intended to apply to Hobart, but he might say that Mr. Shoobridge 

 told him that the rainfall at New Norfolk differed but slightly from that 

 •of Hobart, and suggested that he (Mr. Nowell) should take his observations. 

 He considered, however, that he had better confine himself to Hobart, but 

 never for an instant suggested that the conclusions derived from 

 observations at Hobart would be generally applicable throughout the 

 colony. 



A FOSSIL TREE. 



Mr. James Barnard read the following notes on a fossil tree found 

 beneath lOOf b. of basalt, at Richmond, Victoria, by S. H Wintle:— " In 

 the early part of March last I received information to the effect that a 

 fossil tree, 30ft. in length, had been brought to light by the workmen 

 employed in the |'bluestone" quarry of Messrs. Willis Brothers, at 

 Richmond, Victoria. I immediately visited the spot, and found the 

 bole of a tree lying m an east and west direction, partly embedded in 

 a deposit of dark coloured sand. Portions of the trunk were in contact 

 with the base of a basaltic flow 1 00ft. in thickness by measurement. The 

 general opinion, before I examined it, among the uninitiated connected 

 with the quarry, was that it was the common red gum of Victoria, 

 Eucalyptus ro.strata._ I at once recognised it as belonging to an entirely 

 different order, and if not a pine not very widely removed from it. Up 

 to the present time, however, it has not been determined. I mav, 

 perhaps, venture to observe that in it I can see a close resemblance 

 to Salisbuna sp. (Mueller), which in several instances has been brought 

 to light from under the basalt of the "deep leads" of Ballarat and 

 elsewhere in Victoria. Th 3 tree is denuded of its branches ; short 

 stumps alone being left. This fact, coupled with the absence of twigs, 

 leaf impressions, and seed vessels, and also the fine uniform character of 

 the sand deposit, points to the tree having been carried to where it was 

 found by aqueous drift agency. Although I requested the proprietors 

 of the quarry to instruct their workmen to preserve anything in the 

 vicinity of the tree which in the least might resemble nuts or cones, 

 nothing in the shape of fossil fruit has been brought to light. I have 

 been promised, however, that efforts will be made to disentomb the 

 whole tree. The cracks and fissures of the ligneous tree are coated with 

 minute iron pyrites ; while the sand on which the tree immediately 

 reposes is cemented to a considerable extent by the presence of the same 

 mineral. _ For a depth of 4ft. f rom the base of the superimposed basalt, 

 the deposit on which the tree rests may be described as an imperfect 

 dirt bed, being charged with carbonaceous matter in a fine state of 

 division. A well has been sunk in the compacted sand to a depth of 

 several feet in order to catch the drainage from the joints and fissures 

 in the basalt, but no rounded pebbles or gravel have been met with ; 

 nothing, in short, but fine drift sand, thus pointing to a depression that 

 was filled up to a considerable extent by sand transported by aqueous 

 agency prior to the outburst and overflow of the basaltic lava, The 

 southern wall of the quarry is onlv 50yds., lineally, from the Yarra 

 River. On the opposite bank the highly inclined Upper Silurian shales 

 obtain, forming a precipitous bank in contradiction to a more or less 

 gradually shelving bank wherever the basalt obtains. As the source of 

 this newer pleistocene basalt had its origin, it is generally believed, at 

 Heidelberg, some 10 miles distant, there is good ground for assuming 

 that the Yarra River had not an existence at the period when the 

 basaltic flow formed a crypt to the tree and sand bed ; but that at a 

 subsequent epoch it carved out its present channel, chiefly along the line 

 formed by the contact of the basalt with the Silurian strata. It will be 

 observed that the condition of the wood is that of more recent lignite, 

 the fibres being very tough. I am strongly reminded by the occurrence 

 of this tree beneath the basalt, and the physical change which has taken 



