Bairnsdale Gravels and Fossil Wood, 167 



over, the beds were especially developed (as seen in excavations 

 along the raihvay line) from Bairnsdale to the Nicholson River. 

 They again became predominant from Mossiface to Bruthen. 

 From Stony Creek through Nowa Nowa to Tostaree as far as Hos- 

 pital Creek they appeared in sheets of considerable thickness, 

 whilst in nearing the Snowy River basin they were again seen. 

 At 23 miles 18 chains east of Nowa Nowa the Bairnsdale Limestone 

 reappeared and the section in the cutting shewed torrent gravel 3 

 feet, resting in a great thickness of limestones and marls of Jan- 

 jukian or Miocene age. The gravel bed near Neumer'ella shows a 

 thinning out owing to uplift and denudation in this district. 



The thickness of the gravels varies greatly according to local 

 position, and, as we might expect, they are thickest in those areas 

 which, during their deposition, were subject to subsidence and 

 estaurine influence. Thus, in tlie trend of the old valleys of the 

 Macallister and Mitchell Rivers, we have such evidence from the 

 horing; put down in siarch for water. At Paynesville a pebble bed 

 was met with at 100 feet which, in all probability is the same as. 

 the gravel ted now under discussion; at 160-260 feet Kalimnan 

 fossils from the same boring were identified by the writer, whilst 

 deeper still the Janjukian strata were in evidence. ^ And here 

 must be explained an apparent discrepancy of opinion regarding 

 the much greater thickness of these gravel beds which Dr. Hall^ 

 was led to assume from data given to the Conference on Artesian 

 Water in 1913, since he remarks that '' At Paynesville water was 

 struck at 520 feet in terrestrial gravels." Tlie deposit in question 

 belongs to the older series, and is Miocene or Janjukian, the mis- 

 take liaving arisen from the bore-foreman describing the silty, 

 shelly (marine) deposit as ''terrestrial gravel." This curious 

 error shows the necessity of a palaeontological examination of the- 

 deposits before any accurate conclusion as to origin can be arrived 

 at. It is also extremely probable that the same results would obtain 

 from an examination of the boring products of Sale and Fernbank,, 

 also alluded to by Dr. Hall. 



As we jDass over to the eastern border of the ancient Gippsland 

 Bight we notice that much of the coastal plain has again disap- 

 peared beneath the sea, and we get only the inner border of the 

 deposit, naturally with coarser boulders, and lying against the 

 flanks of the old rockv coast-line. This character is mainta'ned 



1 Chapman. Cainozoic Ceolony of the Mallee and other Victorian Bores. Rec. Geol. Surv. 

 Vict., vol. iii., pt. iv., ]91fi, p. 402. 



2 Vict. Nat., vol. xxxi., June, 1914, p. 33. 



