44 PRIMARY OR PALÆOZOIC ROCKS. 
r 
UPPER PALÆOZOIC. 

DEVONIAN, CARBONIFEROUS AND PERMIAN. 
The specimens placed under the above heading are collected from 
groups of strata that occur in widely separated, more or less isolated, 
patches, from the Glenelg to the Snowy River. No remains of a fossil 
fauna have as yet been found in them, and fossil plants in a few localities 
only, viz. : Bacchus Marsh, the valley of the Devils River, the valley 
of the Avon in Gippsland and on Mount Tambo. ‘The greatest 
development of these rocks occurs to the westward, in the Grampians, 
Victoria, Serra and Dundas ranges; and to the eastward, in North 
Gippsland, extending from Bushy Park and Lindenow north-westerly 
to Ben Cruachan and Mount Wellington, whence they probably also 
extend in outlying patches across the Dividing Range to the valley of 
the Devil’s River. ‘They are certainly intermediate in age between the 
Upper Silurian, on the one hand, and the Carbonaceous or coal-bearing 
rocks on the other, which latter almost certainly rest on them under the 
greater part of the Gippsland plains, from Hayfield and Mewburn Park 
to Rosedale, Sale, Stratford, Lake Wellington, &c., and if so, preclude 
the existence of auriferous deep leads under these plains. The litho- 
logical character of the different beds, and the general physical aspect 
and prevailing color of the formation bear a very close resemblance to 
those of the Lower Carboniferous and Devonian formations of Britain. 
(For further details, see “ Votes on the Physical Geography, Geology, 
and Mineralogy of Victoria”—Intercolonial Exhibition Essays, 1866.) 
Traces of copper have been found in the shales of this formation on 
the Devil’s River, and thin veins of micaceous iron-ore occur in the 
Grampians. 
Good freestone for building purposes, grindstones and flags for 
paving can be procured from these rocks in various localities. 
In South Australia the copper lodes are associated with similar 
rocks, and with veins of micaceous iron-ore, also with thick beds of 
crystalline, white-and-grey marble or limestone. ‘The latter has not been 
observed in Victoria, and it seems probable that the lower beds of the 
formation, with which, in South Australia, these valuable deposits are 
associated, are not represented here, ; 
The areas occupied by this formation are colored light Indian red 
on the sketch-map, and numbered 8. 
