358 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 
Lately we have shown that the Survey is entirely wrong in the 
sequence they indicate by the ages they have assigned to the various 
beds, as we find in the Maude district beds equivalent to the lower 
beds of Spring Creek underlying the “ Older Basalt,” and those 
equivalent to Waurn Ponds overlying the “Older Basalt.”* * * § In 
addition to this strati graphical evidence we indicate the occurrence 
of 293 molluscan species at the Spring Creek section, and of these 
only three are living species ; therefore there is practically only 1 jier 
cent, of living species in these beds. In the same paper we work out 
the percentage for the Lower Muddy Creek beds, with the result 
that about 2*5 per cent. a?:e living species, which clearly indicates 
an horizon younger than that of Spring Creek, yet not too 
young to be called Eocene. We have also recorded")* 150 species 
from Curlewis, and of these only three are living species, so 
that there is only 2 per cent, of the latter in these beds so far as 
the examination of them has yet gone. There is also little doubt as 
to the identity of the Curlewis and Belmont beds, as many hitherto 
peculiar species are obtained from these beds, and the remainder of 
the fauna is made up in part of some hitherto characteristic forms of 
the Spring Creek horizon, in part of hitherto characteristic forms of 
the Mornington horizon, and in part of species common to both 
horizons. TJpcn the foregoing evidence I am inclined to regard the 
Curlewis and Belmont clays as indicating an horizon intermediate 
between that of Mornigton and that of Spring Creek. 
Mr. H, A. F. Murray has stated of the “ Older Basalt” that it 
marks “distinctly the close of the Middle Tertiary or Miocene era,”} 
and this expresses the view held by the Survey, but it has now been 
shown to underlie the Eocene clays of Curie wis§ — that is, the 
Oligocene of the Survey — also to underlie the Eocene limestones 
of Flinders and the Eocene at Eagle’s Nest on the Otway Coast; 
but the conclusive section for determining the age of the “Older 
Basalt” occurs at Maude, where, as already noted, we have marine 
Eocene beds underlying as well as overlying the volcanic rock, and 
therefore it must be of Eocene age. The upper part of the Moorabool 
Yalley in the neighbourhood of Maude was the district in which Sir 
A. K. C. Selwyn originally determined the age of the “ Lower Gold 
Drifts” to be Miocene. This age was then generally applied in other 
localities where the drift was overlaid by the “ Older Basalt,” as in 
Gippsland, &c. Now that the age of the volcanic l'ock has been 
altered it will also be necessary to place our “ Lower Gold Drifts” 
further back in time. The same remarks apply to the various plant- 
bearing beds which have been proved to underlie the “ Older Basalt. ”|| 
In Gippsland, in the valley of the Narracan Creek, it is interesting 
to note that an important seam of brown coal occurs underneath the 
“ Older Basalt.”^[ A seam ot brown coal 70 feet in thickness, and 
underlying marine Eocene beds equivalent to those at Mornington, 
has also been passed through in the Altona Bay bore, about twelve 
or thirteen miles from Melbourne. 
* Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic., vol. vii., n.s., p. 180 et. seq . 
f Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic., vol. vi., n.s., p. 10. 
t Geo. and Phys. Geog. Vic., p. 109. 
§ Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic., vol. vi., n.s., p. 2. 
|| A. A. A S. Adelaide, 1893, p. 338 et seq. 
II Prog. Rep. Geo. Surv. Vic,, vol. viii., p. 28. 
