160 Wealden Formation of Europe. 



The views of Mr. Searles Wood and others, that the deposits 

 had taken place in closed basins, and the presumptive 

 evidence brought forward in support of such, was next 

 referred to. This portion of the paper was illustrated by 

 maps showing the several configurations of land and water 

 in England, France,' and Spain during the carboniferous, 

 Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. The partially enclosed area 

 of Port Phillip Gulf presents some resemblance to such 

 closed basin (as above alluded to), and the analogy would be 

 complete if we suppose communication with the sea, through 

 its present narrow outlet, obstructed by the formation or 

 elevation of a bar of land connecting Point Nepean with 

 Point Lonsdale, and so converting the existing gulf into an 

 inland lake, which would continue salt or become brackish, 

 or even fresh, in proportion to the ratio of the river supplies 

 of fresh water to the evaporation. 



The geological history of the Victorian tertiaries, in their 

 alternate elevations and depressions, would further illustrate 

 some, if not all, of the peculiar phenomena of the English 

 Wealden formation. 



In Victoria, such vertical motions of the surface appearing 

 in some measure to be connected with the various basaltic 

 outbursts incidental to so many parts of the Colony, it was 

 suggested that, possibly in Great Britain, the continuous 

 elevation of the land from the Old Red Sandstone to the end 

 of the Oolitic period, and its subsequent depression during the 

 Cretaceous era, and lastly, its final elevation after the Tertiary 

 epoch, might be traced to be not altogether unconnected 

 with certain trap and basaltic eruptions on the western 

 coasts in Scotland. 



As presumptive evidence of such being the case, it was 

 pointed out that the Skuir of Eig (a vast dyke of greenstone) 

 reposes on the remains of an Oolitic forest, and portions of 

 the trap rocks forming the Giant's Causeway are found to 

 overlie rocks of the Cretaceous age. 



The general scope of the paper was to suggest, by analogy, 

 possible causes which may be inferred from existing pheno- 

 mena in other places, particularly around Melbourne, in 

 explanation of the yet somewhat obscure agencies concerned 

 in the formation of one series of the most interesting, and 

 to some extent, anomalous strata of the Wealden. 



