10 
THE GEELONG NATURALIST 
limestone underneath. Messrs Hall and Pritchard in their report 
of the Curlewis bed say the same thing, v^z., that the limestone 
underlies the blue clays. 
There appears to have been a o^radual upward movement of all 
this portion of Victoria during the Eocene period, and as the bottom 
of the sea rose above the zone at which corals thrive, and approached 
that zone in which the whelk, oyster and cockle do best, these forms 
took their place. At the same time the rivers and creeks cut their 
channels through the upper deposit bringing the clay and mud down, 
and covering up the shells and preserving them to the present day. 
After the lower Eocene shells were deposited, the land appears 
to have been above the sea level (at least a great portion of Victoria) 
for we find no middle or upper Eocene shells. In most instances 
about G-eelong we find a considerable depth of loose white sand, 
apparently of river-deposited material, and overlying this a mass of 
basalt that appears to have filled up the beds of the Eocene creeks 
and rivers. 
In comparing the different geological sections revealed in 
Victoria, we are forced to the conclusion that they are of three 
different ages. First we have the basalt underlying the Eocene, 
such as Eagle Kock and Curlewis. This must be either older Eocene 
or Cretaceous. Secondly, Miocene as at LandridgeG- ally. Scalp Creek, 
and Connor's Plain in G-ippsland. 
In some cases this basalt lies directly on the lignite and plant 
beds (the plants being Miocene forms). In others it rests on a 
fine white silty sand (see section at Scalp Creek) of freshwater 
formation, Fyansford Hill and other sections round G-eelong. 
The survey says that this "older basalt," as they call it, marks 
the close of the Miocene age, and that this is the case there can be 
scarcely a doubt, if we study the basalt flow at Marnock Vale and 
Fyansford Hill. There again we have a section. We have a 
Pliocene river carrying the bones of the animals of that age, cutting 
its way through the older basalt and Miocene river silty sand down 
to the Eocene clay-bed, and in some cases through the older lime- 
stone to the bedrock, which may be the bottom Tertiary, Volcanic 
(Curlewis), Mesozoic freestone (Barwon River), or slate and granite 
(Moorabool River). 
The quarries from which we get our bluestone for the streets 
is a part of this Miocene flow, and I have followed it from 
Connewarre Lakes on the north side of the river, up to some miles 
beyond Maud. About Geelong the persistent feature is its lying 
in most instances on the bed of white silty sand. There is evidence 
of a thin sheet of this flow extending over most of the hills about 
Highton, but there is nothing left now but ironstone nodules, the 
inferior deposit being stained red with oxide of iron. 
I think the reading of Mr Murray, Government geologist, is 
correct, although it has been questioned by others. He says in his 
"Geology and Physical Geography of Victoria" page 18, "volcanic 
