in South Western Victoria. 233 



difference being that in it the enclosed shells are the most 

 common ones of the present sea beach ; while in the 

 Glenelg deposit a few of them are not now found on the 

 coast. The shells at the Devil's Den occasionally encrust 

 blocks of an older-looking rock, which are scattered here 

 and there on the river banks: their origin will be 

 explained presently. At a height of about 30 feet from the 

 summer level of the water, there is a mass of conglomerated 

 material, composed of clay, limestone, sand, &c., full of marine 

 shells. The bank on which it occurs is on the edge of an 

 extensive flat, over which the river sometimes flows in 

 winter. 



On the left bank of the river, opposite Roscoe's, the margin 

 • of the stream is in places covered by immense numbers of 

 shells, reminding one forcibly of sheltered coves on the sea 

 shore. Bivalves are very plentiful, particularly Pectuncu- 

 lus ohliquus, Leda crassa, Chione rohorata, <&:c. The uni- 

 valves are mostly small, but large ones, such as Fasciolaria 

 fusiformis, Voluta undulata, fee, are sometimes found, 

 though they are generally more or less injured by being 

 washed about, either by the river waters, or by the waves of 

 the sea, which deposited them on a former beach. 



A little higher up the stream, on a hill or point of land 

 cut through by a small creek, a very friable rock crops out, 

 consisting almost entirely of shells, loosely adhering together. 

 Most of them belong to a species still extremely common on 

 the coast — viz., Bankivia 'purpvurascens. So abundant are 

 they in this crumbling rock, that at first sight it seems to be 

 composed of nothing else. They are present in thousands, 

 nearly all quite perfect, and retaining their colour as com- 

 pletely as if just washed up by the tide. It is from the 

 prevalence of these shells that I have called the deposits 

 " Bankivia beds." They are, however, by no means the only 

 shells in the place, as by examining the rock and the debris 

 around, a great variety of species can be found. This is the 

 most interesting outcrop of the fossil-bearing strata any- 

 where on the river. Its position and the fresh appearance 

 of the shells give clear evidence of its being an original 

 deposit. The spot where it occurs lies about 60 feet above 

 the river bed, and is the greatest elevation at which I could 

 find shells. The river never perhaps rises so far above its 

 present channel, and the majority of the shells in the low- 

 lying ground cannot come from here, but are derived from 

 less elevated portions of the same strata. IMear the same 



