184 



Mr. R. H. Walcott ( 13 ) has recently published an account 

 of volcanic tuffs near Mount Terang (Vict.), where bones 

 of extinct marsupials and an aboriginal implement were found 

 below the tuff. Professor Gregory ( 14 ) has discussed the ques- 

 tion of the historic age of the more recent volcanoes in his 

 enquiry into the antiquity of man in Victoria. Chapman 

 and Gabriel, < 15 ) in 1917, published an account of a shell-bed 

 underlying the tuffs of the Tower Hill series, near Warrnam- 

 bool (Vict.), and concluded that the tuffs of the Tower Hill 

 series were ejected between early Pleistocene and early Pre- 

 historic times, and represent one of the last stages of the 

 volcanic outburst in Victoria. The evidence at Tower Hill 

 is particularly mentioned on account of the close lithological 

 and physiographic resemblance of the materials and forms 

 there to those at Mount Gambier. 



In the "Geology of South Australia" (Howchin). p. 480, 

 it is stated that "on the southern slopes of Mount Graham 

 there are the remains of an ancient sea beach, about 40 ft. 

 above the present level of the plain, consisting of perfectly 

 loose sand and sea-worn shells. This shows that the sea must 

 have encroached upon the locality and again receded since 

 the volcanoes were in eruption." There is no evidence what- 

 ever of such an encroachment affecting the Mount Gambier 

 area. 



Professor Howchin, in his "Geology of South Aus- 

 tralia," p. 134, says: — "Pliocene and Post-pliocene clays and 

 soils underlie the ash-beds (at Mount Gambier, etc). The 

 latter enclose impressions of trees and plants of species still 

 growing in the neighbourhood, such as Eucalyptus, Casuarina, 

 Banksia, etc., and extinct marsupials of the late Pliocene 

 and Post-pliocene age." Mr. F. Chapman < 16 ) mentions also 

 the bracken fern (Pteris aquilina) as underlying the ash-beds, 

 as does a Banksia "in every way comparable to B. marginata." 

 I submitted to Professor Osborn, of the Adelaide University, 

 a well-preserved impression in ash of the banksia leaves, and 

 he could find no difference whatever between such leaves and 

 those of the present-day B. marginata. 



Following along the line of evidence, suggested by Pro- 

 fessor J. W. Gregory, re the mention of active volcanoes in 



(13) The Volcanic Tuff of Perjark Marsh, Victoria, R. Henry 

 Walcott, Proc. Roy Soc. Vict., vol. xxxii., Part I., 1919. 



(14) The Antiquity of Man in Victoria, J. W. Gregory, Proc. 

 Roy. Soc. Vict., vol. xvii., 1904. 



(15) On a shell bed underlying Volcanic Tuff near Warrnam- 

 bool, Chapman and Gabriel, Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict., vol. xxx., 

 Part I., 1917. 



(16) "Australasian Fossils," Frederick Chapman. 1914. 



