Middle Devonian Rocks, 
43. 
accumulations of felstone, ash, and agglomerate, with felsitic rocks 
of indefinite character are still to be seen grouped.” (Fig. 10.) 
From the fact of their being clearly more recent than tho 
Silurian rocks, and from their being overlaid in places by the 
Middle Devonian limestones, the Snowy River porphyries may 
with tolerable certainty be rcfoiTed to the Lower, or to the lower 
portion of the Middle, Devonian period, the limestones of which 
latter epoch will next be noticed. 
It may also be safely inferred that these Devonian lava-flows 
filled, or partly filled, a great trough in tho Lower Palaeozoic strata 
and granites, and that the sides of that trough rose to a far greater 
elevation than they reach now. The action of denudation has had 
less effect on the porphyries than on their boundary rocks, and has 
reduced the latter to a lower level than the former. Some idea of 
the extent of this denuding action will bo conveyed in the remarks 
on the Upper Devonian rocks. 
The soil yielded by the Snowy River porphyries is usually poor 
and gritty, though in the flat valleys near the heads of the streams 
there is a black peaty soil, supporting a fair growth of snow-grass 
and sub-alpine plants. The timber and scrubs are, as a rule, in- 
ferior and scanty. Tho scenery generally, however, is by no means 
devoid of attractiveness. Tho loftier summits are characterized 
by a stern, rugged grandeur, while the lower portions of some of 
the creeks and rivers wind through precipitous ravines and 
canons, forming successions of picturesque waterfalls and deep 
pools. (Fig. 11.) 
One of the grandest views of mountain scenery, and at the same 
time one of the finest examples of the results of denudation to be 
found in Victoria, is to be seen from Turn-back Mountain, over- 
looking the great valley of tho Snowy River. 
Middle Devonian Rocks. 
Hindi and Buchan Limestones , §c. 
These rocks appear to be confined to the eastern half of the 
colony, and only occur at wide intervals as isolated patches of 
from several square miles to a few acres in extent, occupying 
hollows in older rocks. The largest areas of the typical lime- 
stones of this series are at Biudi, on the Tambo River, and at 
Buchan, at the junction of the Buchan and Murrindal Rivers. 
The fossils found in these limestones are described by Professor 
McCoy as characteristic of the Middle Devonian epoch, and some 
of them are perfectly identical with some found in the European 
Middle Devonian limestones of the Eifel. 
Tho fossils described and figured by Professor McCoy in his 
decades are as follows : — Favosiles Goldfussi (d’Orb.), a coral ; 
Spirifcra hevicostata (Val.), Chonelcs Australis (McCoy), and 
Phragmoceras subtrigonum (McCoy), Molluscs ; Asterolepis ornata 
