Victoria, as a Field for Geologists. 25 



vegetation flourished, this continent was either sea, or not in 

 a condition to nourish that especial vegetation so luxurious 

 elsewhere. All hope, therefore, of finding palaeozoic coal 

 would seem in vain, and no one would care to look for the 

 mineral out of what are known to be mesozoic districts. 

 But say that the Sydney beds are reaUy of the older class. 

 Then there is proof that some part of Australia has been 

 covered by bona fide coal plants, and there is reasonable 

 ground for hoping that in our older rocks, the sandstones of 

 Bacchus Alarsh, of the Grampians, and of Xorth Gipps Land^ 

 rich deposits may be found entombed, and rivaling in value 

 and importance the stores of mineral fuel incidental to 

 England, to America, and to Continental Europe. 



And if the other theor}^, that the Sydney coal is Oolitic 

 equaUy with oiu' own, be true, is there nothing gained — 

 practically, I mean — by ha^^ng the matter decided 1 Is the 

 whole a mere question for dilettanti geologists to squabble 

 over ? I think not. AVe shall be something like a merchant 

 who, in the midst of a crisis, takes stock and finds his 

 balance on the wi^ong side. Not a pleasant discovery, but 

 far better than ignorance as to the real state of aifairs. It 

 is the coward only who flies to the opiate or to the brandy 

 bottle in time of trouble. The brave man longs to see the 

 danger, so that he may face it, and by facing it boldly avert 

 it wholly. 



Above the last mentioned rocks there occurs a blank. 

 The upper Oolitic and ah the Cretaceous group seem, in 

 \^ictoria, to be whoUy unrepresented. In our tertiary 

 deposits we stand once more upon old and weU-known 

 ground. The clay beds of Moming-ton appear the probable 

 representatives of strata found below both London and Paris. 

 The lower miocene near Geelong presents us with a fauna of 

 a very decidedly tropical character. The more singular and 

 the more interesting since, by the equivalents of these beds 

 elsewhere, such cSmate seems in that age to have been 

 almost universal. Even the more superficial deposits of our 

 continent present features well worthy of consideration. 

 In the pliocene drift of Queensland and of South Australia, 

 there occur bones of gigantic mammals, worthy contempo- 

 raries, as you can see by comparison of their respective 

 crania as preserved in our National Museum, of similarly 

 gigantic fossil animals found on other continents. Nor is it 

 less remarkable that, as in South America, the huge 

 MeD-atherium, by its sloth-like form, was evidently closely 



