59 
the eastern coast of Port Phillip, and by the bore* * * § put down in 1857 by 
the Department of Mines near Mordialloc, where basalt was struck after 
passing through 238 feet of Cainozoic sediments, comprising soft sand and 
clay, tends to prove that this is the case. The question as to whether or not 
the upper beds of the Mornington series are conformable to the lower ones, 
and of Eocene age, is an open one. They are, however, probably Eocene. 
From the evidence furnished by the Eocene ferruginous casts at Landslip 
Point, near Franks ton ; by the apparent succession of beds on the coast 
just below the Eocene shell-bearing clays in Balcombe Bay, where the 
unfossiliferous ferruginous grits, sands, &c., appear to overlie conformably 
the fossiliferous clays ; and by the ferruginous casts in the parish of Lyncl- 
hurst, it appears as if the whole of these upper beds, extending from the 
coast to the flanks of the spurs off the Bandenong and Narre Warren ranges, 
are part of the same series, and of Eocene age. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that though in the opinion f of the 
late Professor Tate the fossiliferous beds at Beaumaris are of Oligocene ? 
age, Messrs. T. S. Hall, M.A., and G. B. Pritchard urge % that not these 
beds only, but the whole series extending to Melbourne from Beaumaris 
are of Miocene age. Should this be settled beyond a doubt to be the case, 
it is possible that some at least of the deposits in the area dealt with in this 
report are of Miocene age. 
Post Pliocene. 
Included under this division is a considerable extent of country, con¬ 
sisting of wide flats along the course of a branch of the Eumemmerring 
Creek, and narrow strips of alluvium and small patches of marshy or 
low-lying country in different parts of the district. The smaller occurrences 
could not be properly ascertained in the time available, therefore only 
the principal portions have been coloured distinctly on the plan. 
The majority of the other occurrences lie in the Cainozoic area. The 
deposits found along the course of the stream mentioned are principally 
of a clayey nature, and several feet in thickness. The clay has been 
derived partly from basalt and partly from Silurian rocks, and is covered 
by a varying thickness of alluvium or decaying vegetable matter, as 
in the marshy portion near the junction of the stream with the Eumem¬ 
merring Creek. Sands and gravels also occur in this creek, and in some 
of the smaller water-courses. Thin deposits of peaty matter are found 
in the heath-covered sandy tracts on the borders of the parishes of 
Sherwood and Langwarrin. In one of them, so I was informed, aboriginal 
implements, such as stone flakes, hammers, and fish-hooks, were found 
by Mr. E. Waller. 
As regards the occurrence beneath these Cainozoics of any area of 
Jurassic beds which may contain coal, there is not much evidence upon 
which to base an opinion. In a bore sunk§ to a depth of, 172 or 180 
feet in 1857, near Frankston, basalt is reported to have been struck, 
after having passed through 165 feet of Cainozoic deposits of sands 
and clays, and several feet of ‘‘sandstone of the old Silurian series 
while in the Mordialloc bore already mentioned, basalt was met with at 
* Progress Report from the Select Committee upon Coal-fields, pp. 12, 24, and 31. 
Papers presented to Legislative Assembly, 1857. 
f Tate, On Some Older Tertiary Fossils of Uncertain Age from the Murray Desert. Trans. 
Roy. Soc. South Aust., Vol. XXIII., Part I., pp. 105-7. 
X Hall and Pritchard, A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Tertiaries in the Neigh¬ 
bourhood of Melbourne. Proc. Roy. Soc. Viet., Vol. IX., 1896. 
§ Prog. Rept. Sel. Com. upon Coal-fields, 1857, pp. 12, 24, 31. 
