Mallee Scrub, Loiver Murray River. 143 



the specimen obtained near Albury and belonging to Eunotia 

 or Eunotie genus (Prachtshiffchen). It is found in the moors of 

 Germany at Franzensbad but not alive, in a fossil state at 

 Santafiora, and under similar circumstances to those in the 

 Mallee Scrub. 



Ehrenberg says, that these Eunolia Infusoria are distinguished 

 by having elongated bodies with independent movements or by 

 single or double bodies, having single, double, or more shells of 

 a prismoid shape, which seldom form more than two or four 

 joined chains, haying four openings or two on each side ; on the 

 neutral side flat, on the dorsal side convex, and very often 

 prettily indented 



There are three of these families alive, and ten fossil speci- 

 mens have been found since 1837, when this genus was first 

 discovered in Siberia. 



The specimen obtained by me in the Mallee Scrub will surely 

 interest men of science like Professor Ehrenberg, as being im- 

 bedded in our Australian Upper Tertiary formation and forming 

 another connecting link in that chain of strata which I had the 

 honor to delineate hi my 2nd Eeport to you for 1854, and 

 published in the Transactions of the Institute for 1857, page 32, 

 Nos. 1, 2 and 3. I therefore beg to communicate through you to 

 the scientific world these observations as one of those small 

 results of my investigations of this year in our desert, particularly 

 as Mr. Foord believes they arise from stagnant pools in which a 

 great mass of the green confervaceae is formed, and that if the 

 latter are carefully dried, burnt and the ashes exposed to view 

 under a powerful glass ; similar siliceous forms would be 

 seen. Dr. Sconce and I have made experiments which 

 showed us similar bodies, but after consulting Lindley's Vege- 

 table Kingdom, I cannot agree with Mr. Foord's hypothesis as 

 applicable to the case in question. The result of my inquiries 

 has convinced me that such an enormous mass of siliceous mole- 

 cules could not have been aggregated as the result of the igneous 

 destruction of confervae. First, because they contain so small 

 an amount of silica ; and second, because the ashes of burnt 

 or desiccated confervoid growth would have been dispersed by 

 the winds. The substance I am describing contains a large 

 quantity of silica, and the boundaries of the mass are compara- 

 tively defined. 



The great importance of such a geological phenomenon is 

 evident. I believe that organic life has alone caused these enor- 

 mous deposits of infusorial masses. Considering that only 30 

 years have elapsed since minute scientific investigations into this 



