Tasmanian Society. 
241 
crystalline. Over these stems and roots is a layer of boulders 
of about a foot thick ; then follows soft sandstone, varying from 
twenty to one hundred feet in thickness, with its stratification in 
all directions, such as would be produced by the action of varied 
currents in an obstructed sea, and which may be seen in minia¬ 
ture as caused by the winds on our sandhills, wherever a section 
is exposed to view, Over this thick bed of diagonally stratified 
soft sandstone occurs another fossil forest with its roots and stems 
in situ, as in the lower one. This upper one is evidently of a 
more recent date, and the lime is amorphous, and not crystalline. 
Over this again occurs a boulder deposit as over the preceding, 
and this boulder stratum is the first you come to on penetrating 
the surface at Point Nepean. I have been able to trace this 
formation for upwards of sixty miles round Port Phillip bay; 
and I have little doubt but that these forests, which were sub¬ 
merged, buried under boulders and sand, and subsequently 
upheaved, to be again submerged and upheaved as I now see 
them, also occurred where the bay now is; for in heavy gales 
pieces of fossil wood and resin are driven on shore at places where 
none are to be seen on the coast. I shall at some early date 
throw these crude observations of mine relative to this most inte¬ 
resting locality into some form.” 
March 10, 1847. 
Lieut. W. H. Breton, R.N., exhibited two specimens of a 
curious Crinoidean from the limestone at Fingal, received by him 
from F. L. Stieglitz, Esq. Mr. Breton observed that it was dif¬ 
ferent from any form with which he was acquainted, or which he 
had ever seen figured. One specimen was 10$ inches long by 
1 1 -20th inch broad, and without any visible tapering at either 
end. Fifteen pairs of opposite off-sets, or arms, branched out at 
right angles at about every half inch, the largest of these smaller 
offsets being 1J inch long with a width of 3-10ths of an inch. 
The other specimen was 5£ inches long, 1 1 -20th inch broad, 
with nine pairs of opposite off-shoots, as in the preceding. Asso¬ 
ciated in the rock were Encrinital plates, Spirifer subradiatus, 
Fenestella ampla, and other fossils characteristic of this formation 
in Tasmania. It is probable, however, that this Crinoidean is of 
the same species as Count Strzelecki, in his “ Physical Description 
of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land,” states to occur in 
a similar formation near Marlborough, although he merely states 
“ Criuoidal Columns” without giving any generic name. 
Mr. Breton also produced two plovers, which had been shot 
the day before at Paterson’s Plains, near Launceston, and ob¬ 
served that it was an unusual locality for them. 
Lieut. M. C. Friend, R.N., read a paper “ On the decrease of 
the aborigines of Tasmania.” He alluded in it to the peculiar 
