Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/411

 these the Rev. Julian Woods, of Penola, has proved the most diligent. He sought the palaeontological advice of Prof. Busk and Prof. Rupert Jones, when he had determined that the cretaceous- looking beds were of tertiary age, and forwarded communications to this Society (Quart. Journ. 1860 & 1865), in which he maintained that the Mount Gambier tertiaries were of Crag age.

The softer rocks near the Glenelg, and far away along the Murray, were examined by explorers, and specimens were sent to this Society. Their examination tended to prove that the deposits were of the same general character as the Mount Gambier rocks ; and with this impression Mr. Woods persevered in working among the strata, which, covered by basalt, have retained in the neighbourhood of Hamilton vast numbers of fossils.

Specimens of the Madreporaria were sent to me by Mr. Woods ; and by searching in our Museum I added to their number. My paper, which was a supplement to his essay on the Tertiary Deposits in the Colony of Victoria, Australia (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1865, p. 389), refers to the species I determined from the specimens, descriptions of which had been published in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' (3rd series, vol. xiv. no. 81, Sept. 1864; and vol. xvi. no 93, Sept. 1865). The common Echinoderm of the tertiaries was also described there, and named Hemipatagus Forbesii, Woods and Duncan.

The interest in the Australian tertiaries was increased in the colony by Mr. Woods's popular work, ' Geological Observations,' 1862, especially when practice and experience proved that there was some connexion between the Tertiaries and gold-finding.

The Victorian Survey has mapped the province, under great difficulties ; and Selwyn, Ulrich, Daintree, and Wilkinson have made careful surveys and sections, which, whilst they add to the general knowledge furnished by Mr. Woods, give an excellent idea of the relative position and characters of the deposits. M'Coy has endeavoured to correlate the tertiary strata with the European ; and the Survey has adopted the terms employed in European tertiary geology.

In 1867 I received a collection of Madreporaria from Mr. H. M. Jenkins, F.G.S., then Assistant-Secretary to this Society, which had been sent to him by Mr. Selwyn, with a fine series of shells. All the fossils had been collected by the Survey under Mr. Wilkinson, from beds in the neighbourhood of Cape Otway, which were marked upon the survey sketch map.

The present communication refers especially to this collection of Madreporaria ; but it includes also a description of those forms which I have already published ; for some doubtful points have been cleared up by the possession of better specimens than those upon which the species were founded. The characteristics of the whole fauna are considered in the argument concerning the age of the tertiaries.

II. Distribution of the Tertiary Fossiliferous Deposits.

The extent of the tertiary deposits in South Australia is not known to the north-west ; but they cover many thousands of square