8 Frederick Chapr)ian : 



nature of the deposit of ferruginous grits, sands and clays, to 

 which the fossihferous ironstone undoubtedly belongs. He 

 remarks upon them as follows : — 



" Eocene (?). — Forming the surface along the coast-line from 

 Frankston to a little below the mouth of Chechingurk Creek, 

 and extending far into the country at the back are thick deposits 

 of fine and coaree ferruginous and non-ferruginous sands, 

 quartz grits and clays. On the coast they show in high and 

 low cliffs and sloping banks, extend well up the flanks of the 

 granite and vSilurian^ areas of Mounts Eliza and Martha, and 

 stretch far out across the less elevated portions of the district." 



'* Until the fossils from the new beds herein mentioned, or 

 other beds that may yet be discovered, are thoroughly examined 

 and worked out, it is impossible to say definitely if all these 

 strata are Eocene ; but, lithologically and stratigraphically con- 

 sidered, the ferruginous and other beds overlying the fossih- 

 ferous Eocene clays may reasonably be referred to a much 

 earlier period than the Pliocene, the age to which they have 

 liitherto been assigned by the Survey." 



" In some places there appears to be a distinct unconformity 

 between these ferruginous beds and the fossihferous clays, and 

 in others no such break is noticeable with certainty. . . . 

 They probably belong to the same series that extends along the 

 coast northwards through Beaumaris and Brighton to Mel- 

 bourne, and which, on the evidence of the Beaumaris beds, are 

 regarded by Messrs. Tate and Dennant as of Oligocene age, 

 and by Messrs. Hall and Pritchard as of Miocene age." . . . 



*' The determination of the casts of fossils, which no doubt 

 exist ill many other places besides those noticed, will prob- 

 ably prove of more material assistance eventually in this respect 

 than any attempt niade on stratigraphical evidence." 



In the light of later discoveries of fossils, mentioned in the 

 sequel, not only from Landslip Point, but also from Watson'^s 

 Creek, near Baxter, and which was to some extent predicted 

 and their value as horizon determinaiiijtS;, emphasised as Jibove, 

 by Mr. Kitson, the *'( ?)Eocene " is now relegated to the Miocene 

 or Janjukian. 



The deposition of these beds against sloping banks^ and some- 

 times at angles iip to 10° seems to point to shore or marine 

 littoral conditions. That these ferruginous beds are older than 



2. ='JLo"fv^er Ordovician. ■ ' .ii ■,'■ 



