1865.] WOODS — AUSTEALIAlSr TERTIAKIES. 391 



become glazed over with a ferruginous oxide so as to look like 

 earthenware. The Foraminifera are large and numerous ; indeed 

 one species, Amphistegina vulgaris, D'Orb., is so common that the 

 clay is principally composed of it. Its large lenticular form can be 

 traced in almost every pinch of the debris, and what makes the 

 individuals more conspicuous is that they have all received the fer- 

 ruginous glaze which makes them look like little coins. From their 

 numbers the strata may in truth be called an Amphistegina- 

 bed, similar to that in Vienna, and probably of the same age. 

 Other Foraminifera occur, such as Dlscorbina turbo, Pulvinulina 

 pulchella, PlanorbuUna Haidingerii, Operculina cotnplaoiata, Poly- 

 morpliina lactea, Textularia sagittula, Miliola semiluna, and M. 

 trigonula. Prof. T. Hupert Jones has given me to understand that 

 the above list is indicative of a recent Tertiary formation, some of 

 the fossils being Miocene for Europe. Next in frequency to the 

 Amphistegina vulgaris is the Operculina complanata, Bast., and 

 though equal in size with the species found at Mount Gambier it is 

 much more common in the latter localitj^ The most common of 

 the fossil shells next to the Pecten, sp., is a species of Pectunculus 

 (P. laticostatus, Lam.), large living specimens of which have been 

 obtained by me from Kew Zealand*. The corals occuring fossil in 

 these strata are numerous and peculiar. They will be found de- 

 scribed at the end of this paper. 



This fossiliferous section is, as I have observed, only traceable for 

 about a mile along the rock, and I know of no other locality near 

 Hamilton where it is so exposed again. But near Harrow, about 

 sixty miles to the north-east, the deposit reappears, but in. a way 

 which renders it rather difficult to recognize. The river Glenelg runs 

 close to the town and cuts a deep bed for itself through the coarse 

 granite rocks of the tableland. The level country back from the 

 banks is probably 600 feet above the level of the sea, and is much 

 intersected by creeks which flow to form the main stream. The sur- 

 face of the country is occasionally covered with what appears to be 

 ancient lacustrine basins, because the limestone which fiUs these 

 depressions has a few small fossils of existing species of Planorbis, 

 Physa, Paludina, &c. Where the limestone is absent an ironstone 

 deposit takes its place, and seems to be nothing more than a surface- 

 gravel of rounded or glazed pebbles formed from a very ferruginous 

 sandstone. On these pebbles one can sometimes trace the faint- 

 est outline of a shell, and sometimes a good cast of a fossil, but 

 much too worn to enable one to distinguish even the genus to 

 which it belongs. At a place called EciUy's Creek the following- 

 section is observed : first about six inches of the ferruginoiis gravel, 

 then two feet of red loam, six inches of porcelain earth, and, lastly, 

 about 20 or 30 feet of coarse granite with schorl, passing into mica- 

 schist in places. The ferruginous gravel is the fossihferous deposit, 

 and nearly every pebble contains impressions or casts of shells — 

 sometimes very well preserved. There are, however, none to be 

 found except upon the surface ; I have dug in many places but never 



* See also Prof. M'Coy's Essay prefatory to the ' Catalogue of the Victorian 

 Exlubition, 1861,' p. 169. 



