2 R Henry Walcott: 



around Lake Terang, and a bank on the road leading to Gnotuk 

 Park, near CamperdoAvn, show the bedding, which indicates that 

 the materials were laid down under water." If Professor 

 Gregory's assertion be correct, that the tuff of the plains between 

 Terang ahd Noorat, where the Pejark Marsh is situated, has been 

 re-deposited, then the underlying clay bed may be younger, and 

 not older than the volcanic rocks of the neighbourhood. This is a 

 point of very considerable moment concerning the age of the 

 human relic found in the clay bed, under the tuff. 



In regard to the bedding of volcanic tuft", a common enough 

 character in South-East Australia, Dr. T. S. Hall, 4 and Messrs. 

 Mahony and Grayson^ have shown, that it is by no means proof 

 that the tuff's were laid down under water. On the contrary, the 

 evidence indicates that they were mostly laid down on dry land, 

 the exceptions being in those cases, such as at Pejark, where they 

 may have been deposited in swamps or shallow lagoons. ^ 



The direct deposition in these shallow and stagnant waters does 

 iioti in any way affect the age of the tuffs; that question only arises 

 where there is good and sufficient reason to believe that the tuffs 

 liave been, by the natural agency of wind or water, removed from 

 their original places of deposition to others at a perhaps much 

 later period. 



The few facts gathered with regard to the Pejark tuff certainly 

 •seems to negative the idea that there has been any re-disposition 

 of the material, and one of them is found in the numerous cavities 

 it contains; a somewhat unusual feature in a rock of its character. 



These cavities are of varying size and form, some being 

 extremely regular, more especially the smaller ones, which are also 

 generally spherical, but others again most irregular in shajDe. An 

 examination in situ shows that the cavities are not all due to one 

 oause. Some, the larger and mostly irregular ones, have a 

 brownish coloured lining, and are found only near the bottom of 

 the bed with the leaf impressions. These are undoubtedly the 



4. Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict. Vol. XX., pt. I.. 1909, pp. 20, 21. 



5. Mem. Geol. Surv. of Vict., No. 9, 1910, p. 13, Geology of the Camper- 

 down and Mt. Elephant Districts. 



*6. A specimen of tuff from Pejark Marsh, examined bj^ F. Chapman, is 

 stated by him to " show carbonized and iron-stained impressions of 

 vegetable stems. When wax squeezes of these were taken they were 

 seen to be triangular in section, and under the microscope show a struc- 

 ture exactly matching that of the surface in the living Victorian Marsh- 

 loving Cyperus Incidus. The tuff specimen referred to also show excel- 

 lent cross bedding disposed at a high angle to the plant-stems, thus 

 indicating the formation of this deposit from gentle showers of volcanic 

 •dust." 



