34 Notes on the Discovery of some Keys in the 



The above considerations have induced me to think the 

 matter worth laying before the members of the Royal 

 Society, as a record of a singular experience, wholly irre- 

 spective of its value from a scientific point of view. 



Mr. Latrobe's narrative of what came under his own 

 notice is one thing, his hypothesis to account for what he 

 saw is quite another affair, and the latter being but a 

 matter of opinion, cannot influence the value of the state- 

 ment which 1 now propose reading. 



Mr. Latrobe's statement, copied from an original document 

 in the possession of Alex. F. Mollison, Esq., 2nd November, 

 1874, by the reader, Mr. Rawlinson. 



"The Boucher Lime Kiln, near Geelong, and a Memo- 

 randum about Three Keys found there. 



By C. J. Lateobe, C.B. 



Formerly Lieut. Governor of Victoria. 



"I believe it was either in the year 1845 or 1846, during 

 one of my occasional visits to Geelong, that I, understand- 

 ing from Mr. Addis, our Crown Lands Commissioner, that a 

 man, of the name of Boucher I think, who had a license 

 for lime burning on the shore half a mile or more below 

 Geelong, had made a new excavation for a lime kiln, I 

 proposed to walk down and see it, as I thought it would 

 give me . some further information on the geological 

 structure of that portion of the coast line. 



" We walked over the open down, descended the abruptly 

 swelling banks to the sea-side, a little beyond the first 

 point to the southward, and then proceeding along the 

 shore, entered the excavation from below over the rubbish 

 which had been thrown out. 



"A labourer on the spot was sent up to the hut above, 

 to inform the lime burner of our visit. 



*' As soon as I entered the circular excavation, which was 

 about twenty feet deep, my eye was immediately attracted 

 by the appearance of a line of calcareous matter, presenting 

 itself about the level of my head, and I saw at a glance 

 that it was composed of decayed calcareous shelly matter, 

 the upper line of which was thickly strewn with sea-shells 

 of different species, exactly similar to those which lay on 

 the beach, a few yards below us. Many of these were 

 so little altered as to be scarcely decayed, even preserving 

 their enamel. 



