Reviews — Geological Survey of Victoria. 417 



to the present time. Not one of tliem, with wages as they are at 

 present, is workable. It remains to be considered whether the lower 

 beds of this formation, with which in the neighbouring colonies 

 thick seams of Coal are associated, are likely to be discovered in 

 Victoria." (p. 23.) The flora of these Coal-fields, briefly alluded to in 

 this Keport, is interesting, from its Mesozoic facies, while in some 

 cases, in Tasmania, New South Wales, and Queensland, with a 

 Mesozoic flora, the associated marine fauna is of Pala30zoic type. 

 One point of interest is mentioned with regard to the genus Glos- 

 sopteris (a well-known Australian Coal-fern), that it is usually cha- 

 racteristic of the lower and thicker seams of Coal, but no trace of it 

 has been found in Victoria. A table of fossils by Prof. McCoy is given 

 at p. 33, of the more common and characteristic types, the greater 

 number of which have been discovered in the colony ; although de- 

 termined by him, they have not yet been published. Allusion is also 

 made to some fossil fruits discovered about three years ago in an 

 auriferous lead at Haddon, near Smythesdale, and described and. 

 figured by Baron von Mueller (in the Quarterly Reports of the 

 Mining Surveyors), who infers from these remains "that during the 

 later Tertiary period a portion of the western district of the colony was 

 an archipelago, with here and there a few active subaerial volcanos, 

 and enjoying a warmer climate than that which now prevails, and 

 having on the land surfaces a vegetation somewhat of the character 

 of that found in the north-eastern parts of Austi-alia." 



The second Eeport is on the Mineral Resources of Ballarat, by 

 Mr. Reginald Murray, including an account of the various forma- 

 tions, their characteristics, and. the observed facts connected with 

 them interesting to the miner and scientific inquirer. The rocks of 

 Ballarat are Granite, Lower Silurian, with auriferous quartz reefs, 

 and the Tertiary gold drifts. There are four clearly defined epochs 

 of gold drift in the Ballarat district. 



1. The 'oldest' period included the deposit of drifts clearly ante- 

 cedent to the time at which the lead-channels were eroded to their 

 present depth. 



2. The 'older' period embraced the deep-lead drifts, those inter- 

 vening between the lava flows and the lava flows themselves, the 

 uppermost lava flow closing the period. 



3. Deposits of ' recent ' age are those which were deposited im- 

 mediately after the uppermost lava flow. 



4. ' Most recent ' drifts are those in recently eroded gullies, or 

 such deposits of clay, sand, and gravel as have accumulated subse- 

 quently to the 'recent' period, and form coverings over the other 

 deposits. 



These auriferous deposits show the amount of denuding action 

 which disintegrated the quartz reefs durhig the various drift periods. 

 For, although a large proportion of the alluvial gold was probably 

 disintegrated from its matrix during the ' oldest ' period ; as the lead 

 channels were eroded, the ' oldest ' gravels were in a manner 

 sluiced down, and their gold re-deposited in the river-beds, together 

 with the fresh sup^Dly from the further disintegration of the Silurian 

 rocks. 



DECADE II. VOL. I. NO. IX. 27 



