288 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 9, 
very late in the time when the extinct antetypes of the existing 
Australian mammalian fauna flourished. 
The basalt immediately above the coralline limestone limits supe- 
riorly the marine fossiliferous series. Its equivalents in time were, 
in all probability, the clay, the ferruginous sandstones, and the 
sandy limestones which cover the so-called Miocene to the north- 
west of the Glenelg; and these beds, which are well-developed on 
high ground, form the upper gold-drifts. 
A great upheaval, probably affecting the whole of Central Aus- 
tralia, occurred after this outburst, and determined the present con- 
figuration of the land, which has suffered from no glacial conditions, 
but from great denudations of all kinds, the encroachment of sand, 
the formation of salt lakes, and repeated volcanic outbursts. It 
is evident that a vast basaltic layer covers the fossiliferous beds, 
the drift upon them, and the old rocks where they are not covered 
by those tertiaries to which the names of Miocene and Pliocene have 
been given. 
The section at Spring Creek, by Mr. Daintree, exhibits the suc- 
cession of beds in the marine fossiliferous tertiaries as follows :— 
(Upper Miocene.) feet. 
Hard thin-bedded sandy limestone, the calcareous ponien con- 
sisting almost entirely of corals... Perera gbda006 
(Middle Miocene.) 
Softsbrownsancysclayay. ne ee cians elie citer ite 86 
Brown, blue, and yellow sandy clays................ gOS ea 30 
Very hard crystalline sandstone..........-+---++++2++-+05 1 
Brown sandy clay poor in gypsum ............00ceeeseee 12 
Very hard crystalline sandstone............+002e0.--2 eee Ut 
Brown sandstone containing abundance of gypsum.......... i) 
Blue marl containing septaria, gypsum, and iron-pyrites .... 10 
Friable thin sandstone with thin bands of gypsum.......... 8 
(Lower Miocene.) 
Very hard crystalline sardstone..............++..ee se eee I 
Soft brown sandstone with thin bands of harder material .... 4 
Soft brown sandstone <2 .02-..0.--c+ cscs ose + ceumecteens ce 13 
Thin-bedded brown sandstone . .......-.-.+--....-000- 20 
Blue and grey friable sandstone................... s+..-2-. 8 
273 
M‘Coy and Selwyn have used the European nomenclature ; but I 
prefer to term the series Cainozoic; and as it appears to me that the 
upper member of the fossiliferous series is merely a deep-sea depo- 
sit (in a general sense) and contemporaneous with those below it, I 
cannot see the propriety of terming it Pliocene. The term Caino- 
zoic is infinitely preferable here. 
Nor can I distinguish between the fossiliferous series and the 
sands, clays, and ferruginous beds above it, except in admitting the 
