perature of 108 degrees, and others of them are hot and cold. 

 The description of Blanche Cup Springs by Mr. E. G. Water- 

 house will serve as a type: — "This is the most beautiful 

 volcanic cone I have seen. It rises about the height of from 

 thirty to forty feet, and the cup or crater at the top is about 

 forty feet in diameter, and is filled with fiue limpid water en- 

 circled with fine tall green reeds. This lava is of a very hard 

 and compact nature, of a grey colour, and much resembles 

 siliceous limestone." 



Older Tertiary. 

 The older Tertiary deposits of undoubtedly marine origin 

 occupy three basins, which are not now coterminous. They 

 are: — 



1. The Murray basin. 2. That of Aldinga and Southern 

 Torke's Peninsula ; and 3. That of Bunda, Great Aus- 

 tralian Bight. 

 The Murray basin is the most extensive, and embraces nearly 

 the whole of the country in South Australia to the east and 

 south of the River Murray, and, moreover, a considerable tract 

 resting on the west and north bank of that portion of the river 

 within our territory. 



The strata, which constitute the vast plain of the South-East, 

 extend across the Victorian frontier, and occupy the basin of 

 the Lower Glenelg Paver, thence the coast line by Portland, 

 "Warrnambool, and Cape Otway to Geelong. This portion of 

 South Australian geology has had not a few historians, the 

 earliest of whom was Sturt, who, in tracing down the Murray 

 from the Murrumbidgee in 1829, found that the river at about 

 130 deg. long, (somewhat eastward of the boundary of this 

 province) entered a gorge, the limestone walls of which were 

 highly charged with marine fossils. The description of the 

 Pviver Murray Cliffs given by Sturt (see Expeditions in South 

 Australia, vol. II., p. 139, 1843) is to this day the only published 

 source of information respecting the most interesting of the 

 geological features of this colony. Nevertheless, the rocks and 

 fossils of the Eiver Murray have a long story to tell, for though 

 Sturt's observations are accurate, yet he did not view with the 

 eye of the experienced geologist. 



Passing to that portion of the Murray Basin which centres 

 around Mount Gambier, we have in the several works of the 

 Eev. J. E. Woods, E.G.S. — particularly in his '" Geological 

 Observations in South Australia," 1861 — an exhaustive treatise 

 on the stratigraphical phenomena, not only of the Older Tertiary 

 beds, but of the newer deposits, of this the most diversified 

 portion of this province. 



The Aldinga and Yorke's Peninsula Basin. I have already 

 referred to the occurrence of Older Tertiary strata in two discon- 



