BY R. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 161 



AUSTRAXiASXA. 



Australia and Tasmania. — The preceding compara- 

 tive table gives a fair abstract of the general features, 

 composition, life, a^nd classification of the rocks of the epoch 

 in each of the Colonies of Australasia where the formations 

 of the period are most extensively developed. In a general 

 way it may be stated that, excluding the later raised sea 

 beaches, the Marine Tertiary formations nearly all belong 

 to Pal(Eogene age, and are mainly confined to the southern 

 parts of Australia and the northern parts of Tasmania, 

 extending and occupying the greater part of the low-lying 

 country along the course of the River Murray and the 

 southern coast line of Australia. The Rev. J. Tenison- 

 Woods, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Tas- 

 mania (Proc. Roy. Soc. Tas., March, 1873), describes 

 them as commencing on the west side of the Great Aus- 

 tralian Bight, and are but little interrupted until the high 

 land of Cape Otway is reached. The only interruptions 

 are granite outcrops about Fowler's Bay, Port Lincoln, &c., 

 and the axis of the Flinders' Range, which terminates at 

 Cape Jervis. Upon the flanks of all these, up to a certain 

 height, the Tertiary rocks rest. In some places, such as 

 the Austrahan Bight, the beds are nearly 400 feet in 

 thickness, and these give almost at one glance a conspectus 

 of the whole of our Tertiary (marine) formations. Between 

 Warnambool and Cape Otway there are equally perfect 

 series, but not superimposed; and the eastern limits of 

 the floor of this old Tertiary sea are found in the vicinity 

 of the spur of the Dividing Range, which abuts upon the 

 sea at Wilson's Promontory, including the formations 

 close to the sea in Gippsland. The more remarkable 

 localities between Cape Otway and the eastern limit 

 embrace formations on the eastern and western shores of 

 Port Philhp, including Geelong, Mount Maria, Muddy 

 Creek, Cape Schanck, &c. The chffs on the coast near 

 Spring Creek, 16 miles south of Geelong, expose a thick- 

 ness of about 300 feet of strata. The most southerly 

 limits of this old sea floor are found in northern Tasmania 

 in isolated patches between Cape Grim in the extreme 

 north-west and Fhnders' Island in the north-east. The 

 patches in Tasmania, however, though of limited extent, 

 are of considerable thickness, and are extremely rich in 



