232 Notes on Post Tertiary Strata 



from the ocean, deposits of calcareous sand accumulated upon 

 them, which, having consolidated, now remain as stratified 

 beds overlying the basalt. 



II. — Bankivia Beds, Pleistocene. 



I have next to call attention to a remarkable fossil 

 deposit on the banks of the Glenelg river, almost midway 

 between Casterton and Dartmoor. Some shells from this 

 neighbourhood were given to me about three years ago, and 

 Professor Tate, to whom they were submitted, pronounced 

 them to be recent and to be represented for the most part by 

 species now inhabiting the adjoining seas. Subsequent 

 collections included a very few of rather older appearance 

 than the rest, reducing the percentage of living species 

 slightly. It was a great surprise to find such fossils so far 

 from the coast, and I took the first opportunity of visiting 

 the locality and noting the position of the beds. 



The shells occur in abundance on the very margin of the 

 Glenelg, just at the junction of the Limestone Creek with 

 it, and along the banks of the river as far up as the Old 

 Pieracle station, where a selector now lives named Roscoe, 

 from whom I have received much help in my search for 

 fossils. The deposit appears to cease here, as no shells 

 were found farther north, the bed of the river, as well as the 

 banks for 40 or 50 feet up, being composed of drift full of 

 quartz pebbles, mica, and nodules of ironstone (limonite). 

 It extends, however, for some distance below Limestone 

 Creek : how far it would be difficult to determine exactly, 

 as the beds thin out gradually. The most notable spots for 

 shells are situated between the places mentioned. 



The nearest point of the coast is about 25 miles in a direct 

 line from Limestone Creek, but the river meanders along for 

 fully 120 miles before it discharges itself into the sea at 

 Nelson. 



About half a mile above the Limestone Creek junction, 

 near a romantic spot known as the DeviFs Den, the bank of 

 the river is a mass of stone containing numerous oyster and 

 other shells confusedly mixed together. Sometimes the 

 carbonate of lime forms a cement by the partial dissolving of 

 the shells themselves. It has made quite a hard stone; but 

 the shells are principally on the surface, standing out clear, 

 and not looking as if an integral part of the stone. A 

 similar rock was mentioned in the first part of this paper as 

 Si recent formation at Narrawong, Nelson^ &c., the only 



