PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS — SECTION C. 
77 
(2.) Recent Observations by the Author. 
A. — Bacchus Marsh District . 
During December, 1894, I bad the advantage of the guidance and 
help of Messrs. G. Sweet and Chas. C. Brittlebank when examining a 
portion of the glacial beds at Bacchus Marsh. 
Bacchus Marsh is a small town, distant thirty-two miles W.N.W. 
from Melbourne, and 343 feet above sea-level. The surface of the 
country rises gradually from the town to the undulating plateau of 
the Pentland Hills. 
Their outlines are smooth and flowing, notched here and there by 
valleys eroded to depths of from about 300 to 500 feet. The plateau 
slopes gently to the south-east towards the plains of Melbourne and 
Geelong. Looking southwards the observer sees the Yoyangs, 
hills of granite of considerable height, boldly outlined against the 
sky. Northwards the plateau culminates in the small dome of Mount 
Blackwood, an extinct volcano. Most of the country has been cleared 
and apportioned into farms, whose comfortable-looking homesteads 
here and there nestle among orchards and clusters of trees. Post-and- 
raii fences fitted with barbed wire divide the paddocks, which at the 
time of my visit were covered with grass, thin and sere from the 
summer heat, giving the hills a pale umber hue, save where they were 
patched with the yellow and green of ripening crops of oats. At 
intervals a thick clump of Scotch thistles made those of us whose legs 
were unfortified by gaiters walk warily* Every now and then the 
white scut of a retreating rabbit twinkled among the brown stems of 
the bracken lining the banks of Myrniong Creek ; and once our noses 
made us aware that an English fox was close at hand, and presently 
we sighted him creeping stealthily below some ledges of rock high 
above our heads. 
The country is drained by the Korkuperrimal Creek on the east, 
Myrniong Creek in the centre, and Pykes Creek on the west. They 
are all tributaries of the Werribee ltiver. The general fall of these 
creeks and of the Werribee River is towards the south-east. Mr. 
Brittlebank pointed out to me excellent sections in the banks of 
Myrniong and Korkuperrimal Creeks and in those of the Werribee 
River. 
The formations represented are as follows : — 
(1 .) Recent . — Alluvial gravels, rubble, &e., on the banks of the 
creeks and rivers. 
(2.) Pliocene (?) — Sand, clay, and gravei overlying newer basalt. 
Thickness about 30 feet. 
(3.) Pliocene. — New r er basalt. Thickness about 100 feet. 
(4.) Lower Miocene or Eocene (?) — Sand, clay, quartz, gravel, and 
sandy dark-brown ironstone, containing Laurus Werribeensis and 
fossil fruit. Total thickness 300 feet to perhaps at least 500 feet. 
(5.) Older basalt perhaps interstratified with the above. Thick- 
ness (?) 
(6.) Permo-Carboniferous (?) — Glacial beds. Thickness estimated 
approximately by Messrs. Sweet and Brittlebank {op. cit ., p. 388) as 
5,000 feet. The portion examined by me in Korkuperrimal Creek 
