‘Se 
N THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
considered at first to be the bottom of the deposit, is reached. 
However, it is only a false bottom, probably marking a long 
cessation of volcanic activity. Again, under this band the 
. deposits are continued in similar order, but containing a 
. greater admixture of clinkers, and broken here and there by 
intrusive basalt pyramids from below, till finally, solid stone. 
—a honeycombed basalt—is met. 
Another deposit appears just like an immense heap of 
road metal. Here is a chance for the Geelong Field Natu- 
ralists’ Club. We all remember the archaeological discoveries 
mentioned in Pickwick. Could not we naturalists send an 
exploring party to demonstrate that this was the work of an ` 
aboriginal contractor, whose council was not compliant 
<- enough to purchase his surplus metal, and here it is after 
being thrown on his hands, probably a few centuries ago. 
The scoriz found in the former deposit is extensively used for 
railway ballast in the Western District, the only disadvantage 
it possesses being its lightness, and consequent liability to be 
washed away in low-lying localities. : 
In Camperdown, Terang, and Mortlake, it is used for 
footpaths, and forms into a solid dry path, unequalled for 
towns which cannot afford the luxury of asphalt, and incom- 
parably superior to the round pebbly gravel so much used in 
the back streets of Geelong. i 
\ 
The volcanic ash, which is met with in the scorie 
deposits, also occurs in many places, and forms the rim of 
the older volcano, which now includes Mt. Leura, of the 
crater where are now Lakes Bullenmerri and Gnotuk, and an 
examination of it reveals the presence of pieces of pumice, 
basalt and kindred rocks, as if thrown into it while hot and 
molten. 
Passing from the nature of these formations to the 
animal life existing at the same time, or probably immediately 
^ 
after, we find the prototypes of our present day kangaroos, 
wombats, dingoes, and native bears. Our old man kangaroo 
is but a dwarf descendant of the Macropus Titan and other 
species which grazed over the plains in the vicinity of Mt. 
Leura, and whose bones are very plentifully strewed along 
Lake Colongulac to the north of Camperdown. 
Wombats are represented by species probably not long 
extinct. The marsupial lion is referred to by Prof. McCoy, 
‘However, the most remarkable of the extinct fauna is the 
original of our little native bear, the Diprotodon. "The molars . 
/ 
