562 Reviews — Geological Survey of Victoria. 



BEVIE "W S. 



I. — Geological Survey op Victoria, No. 2. 



1. Eeport of Progress. By E. B. Smyth. Melbourne (no date). 



2. Prodromus of the Palaeontology of Victoria. By Fred. McCoy. 

 Decades I. and II. Melbourne, 1874-75. 



3. Observations on New Vegetable Fossils of the Auriferous Drifts. 

 By Baron F. von Mueller. Melbourne, 1874. 



r E have already noticed the first report of the Geological Survey 

 of Victoria (Geol. Mag. 1874, Decade II. Vol. I. p. 416), and 

 the works above cited sufficiently indicate the satisfactory progress that 

 is being made by the Survey under the direction of Mr. B. Brough 

 Smyth and his able colleagues; while the determination of the 

 animal and vegetable fossil remains could not be placed in better 

 hands than those of Prof. McCoy and Baron Mueller, whose contri- 

 butions are not only of importance to the Colony, but of equal in- 

 terest to European geologists. 



Mr. Smyth's Eeport is both suggestive and useful, as it embodies 

 the general results of the explorations of the officers of the Survey 

 during the past year, and whose detailed reports are given in the 

 memoir. From this it appears that the surveying and mapping of 

 the several areas referred to in the last Eeport are proceeding satis- 

 factorily. The map of the Ballarat gold-field, embracing an area of 

 160 square miles, with illustrative sections and copious notes, is 

 printed and published. The geological sketch-map of Cape Otway 

 district, comprising an area of about 690 square miles, is ready for 

 issue ; and a similar map of South-Western Gippsland will shortly 

 be completed by Mr. Murray, including an area of 3500 miles — a 

 work of time and labour, the country in many parts being so densely 

 wooded as to render the passage difficult. 



Satisfactory progress has been made in the survey of the area 

 including the gold-fields of Stawell by Mr. Taylor, and also of the 

 . Ararat gold-fields by Mr. Krause, who gives some interesting geolo- 

 gical notes as to the conditions under which the various gold-drifts 

 and associated volcanic rocks were accumulated. The geological 

 map and sections of part of the Mitchell Eiver division of the 

 mining district of Gippsland have been prepared by Mr. A. Howitt, 

 whose notes on the geology of this and the Ovens district (pp. 59-82) 

 are important. The report of Messrs. Etheridge, Junr., and Murray 

 on the country intersected by the Durham lead is of much interest. 



In this district the Lower Silurian is the bed rock, covered in 

 some places (the south-westerly portion) by Miocene strata, which 

 are non-auriferous ; in others, the Older Pliocene sands and gravels 

 repose on the upturned surface of the Silurian, and are succeeded by 

 deposits containing gold due to fluviatile denudation, and referred to 

 the Lower Newer Pliocene ; this river deposit forming the " deep lead " 

 became partially covered by a lava-stream. Denudation again set 

 in, forming another lead, and covered by a second flow of lava 

 classed as the Middle Newer Pliocene. A series of volcanic eruptions 



