185/.] SMYTH — EXTINCT VOLCANOS OF VICTORIA. 233 



streams of lava, and we should then have sections similar to the 

 following (fig. 5), which, indeed, are constantly to be seen. 



Fig. 5. — Diagram explaining the denudation of the Older Basalts 



in Victoria. 



a. Older basalt, and a*, its denuded portion, b. Palaeozoic rock, and b*, portion 



denuded, c. Granite. 



At Flemington, near Melbourne, at Geelong, and at various locali- 

 ties bordering on the coast, marine tertiary beds, e, fig. 4, rest on the 

 older basalt, and are the equivalents, Mr. Selwyn supposes, of the 

 miocene beds*. The beds are composed of fine-grained and coarse- 

 grained sandstones, passing into pudding-stone, cemented with oxide 

 of iron, and containing numerous fragments of palaeozoic rocks. 



Amongst the fossils collected by me, and exhibited at the Paris 

 Exhibition in 1854, were — 



Terebratula, very common ; some specimens not distinguishable 

 from existing species ; Nucula, very numerous, and in some localities 

 almost exclusive ; Haliotis, numerous ; Cyprcea and Patella, common ; 

 Spatangus, common ; Ovula ; Voluta ; Cerithium, &c. 



I found also what appeared to be obscure impressions of leaves. 



These tertiary beds are very important. In many localities we find 

 a white quartz-drift overlying the basalt ; and in others, including 

 large areas, there is a hard white quartzose rock, of very distinct 

 lithological character, immediately underneath the newer basalt, and 

 usually overlying the palaeozoic rocks. It is undoubtedly tertiary ; 

 but neither this nor the white quartz-drift f contain fossils, as far as 1 

 can learn, and I have examined it over a great extent of country. Un- 

 fortunately, no very satisfactory sections are exposed which would 

 show the relative ages of these three deposits ; but in the vicinity 

 of Flemington they are found in close proximity, and they appear 

 to occur as follows : — 



1st. Hard quartzose conglomerate, passing into a clear white sili- 

 ceous rock, constantly found immediately overlying the palaeozoic 

 strata, and rarely of any considerable thickness. 



2nd. Brown and yellow sandstones and conglomerates, containing 

 numerous fossils ; from 50 to 200 feet in thickness, and apparently 

 resting on No. 1 . 



* These, I believe, have been distinctly recognized as such by Professor M'Coy, 

 who has made an examination of the fossils. 



t The auriferous drift at Bendigo, Ballaarat, and Castlemaine contains fossil 

 wood, which is sometimes found at a depth of sixty feet. A gentleman, mining 

 at Fryer's Creek, found a bone at a depth of eight or ten feet, which appears to 

 belong to some marsupial. It would be premature at present to speculate on the 

 ages of the auriferous drifts. Some are evidently old — perhaps eocene tertiary — 

 others quite recent. 



