26 
Sedimentary Formations 
occupied a very much wider area than at present over what is 
now called North Gippsland, the Upper .Devonian having 
occupied the whole of it. He seems to have assigned the Snowy 
Diver Porphyries in some localities to a position between Upper 
Silurian and Middle Devonian. The Porphyries are considered 
generally as Lower Devouian, resting as they do on Lower 
Palaeozoics or Granite. 
Under the circumstances detailed, there was no great heresy in 
considering the deposits hastily observed, as 1 then supposed them 
to be. as Lower Carboniferous, which was the oldest Sedimentary 
deposit then known with any certainty; and Mr. llowitt, in 
187$, admitted that there is in Gippsland a passage from the 
Upper Devonian into the Carboniferous beds. 4i We find,” he 
says, “ that the materials of which the groups are composed are 
threefold—coarse conglomerates, sandstones, and shales with 
occasional beds resembling ‘eornstoncs’ in their calcareous 
character. No such unconformity is probable between the 
Upper Devonian and Carboniferous as between the former and 
the Middle Devonian.” (p. 237.) 
The characteristic fossils in the Hindi limestone are Spirifers — 
such does not appear to be the case in the Tambo series, nor is 
Lepidodendron apparently known there, the Avon ltiver more to 
the s.e. being the chief habitat of that plant. 
Mr. Howitt has, I think, clearly shown that the Hindi beds 
are below the Tambo. As to the Porphyries, they seem in places 
to belong to the Granites (which at Moamba, in X.S.W., are 
stanniferous), and occupy a very prominent feature on the long 
Peel Kiver, in New Sout h Wales, it oectirs in line gray sandstone, with Ferns 
and Sigillaria in close proximity to beds of Marine fossils which are as old as 
Lower Carboniferous. It occurs also about 10 miles n.w. of Goulbum, and 
Devonian Marino fossils are known to exist not very far off in the County of 
Ar gyle. * It lias been reported also on the Warrego Kiver. 
besides these fossiliferous evidence^of supposed Devonian age, t here are beds 
of grit, sandstone, and conglomerate occupying positions of extreme doubt¬ 
fulness as to age, not only in Victoria but also all along the coast ranges of 
New South Wales, which, as described bv me and conff l ined by Air. Daintree, 
are certainly older than some parts of the Carboniferous formation. They 
make a near approach to the. “ Old Bed ” of Europe. In my “ Report to the 
Government of Sew South W'ales” (6th March, 1852), 1 have mentioned that 
I hud traced these beds “ from the head of the Slioalhaven to the head of the 
Genoa”) and Mr. Daintree, in his Kcport. to Mr. Solwyn, Director of the 
Victorian Surrey (26th May, 1863), adopts my description, word for word, 
as applicable to ” the Grampian sandstones, the conglomerates south of 
Mount Maecdon, of the Avon Kiver and Tauibo, Gippsland and he adds, 
“there can be little doubt they are all members of one great formation.” 
At, Mount Tambo, according to Mr. Solwyn (1866), they underlie the 
limestone of that locality, which ho therefore considers as probably Carbon¬ 
iferous j and this, as stated above, was my view in 1851. (From 2nd. Ed., 
Pl>- 8-9 ) 
