Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/417

 [The following Madreporaria have been obtained from No. 1.

Flabellum distinctum, Edw. & H. Deltocyathus italieus, Edw. & H., var.

Conotrochus M'Coyi, Duncan. Balanophyllia cylindrica, Michel., var.]

" Some of the banks around the Aire marsh are composed of soft calcareous clay, with beds of hard coralline limestone, almost wholly made up of comminuted echini-spines and polyzoa ; here are also some very ferruginous beds of sandstone containing fossils. These beds may be referred to the lower part of the upper beds, or the upper part of the middle beds of the Spring-Creek series. The fossils collected are labelled No. 12. [No Madreporaria.]

" We next find Miocene occupying the base of the cliff's, about a mile and a half west of the mouth of the Aire river. Here occurs a bed seventeen feet thick (/), containing fossil leaves, labelled No. 2. This bed is exactly similar in appearance to those composing the cliffs, which are more than 200 feet high, about a mile east of Point Addis. It consists of a dark, almost black, argillaceous clay, containing crystals of selenite, and having the crevices filled with a yellow substance similar to that found in the Point-Addis beds, which was analyzed and determined by Mr. Daintree to be basic sulphate of iron, the analysis of which is given in his report above alluded to. A few feet below high-water mark this bed rests on dark clay, with fossils similar to that first mentioned, near Cape Otway. These beds dip to the west ; but for a little more than a quarter of a mile they are so covered up by the fallen masses of the more recent tertiary sandstone that their sequence cannot be traced; then we get upper beds of the middle series, composed almost entirely of polyzoa, and containing many fossils, a large kind of Pecten predominating. Here a fossil seal's tooth was found, the only one, I believe, as yet discovered in the miocene strata in this colony. Professor M'Coy regards this seal's tooth as belonging to the same species as those found in the miocene strata in Malta — which is a very interesting fact. These fossils are labelled Nos. 3 and 4 [and contain the following Madreporaria : —

Flabellum gambierense, Duncan.

— distinctum, Edw. & H.

Placotrochus elongatus, Duncan.

Balanophyllia campanulata, Duncan.

Amphihelia incrustans, Duncan.

Balanophyllia Selwyni, Duncan.']

" The beds here dip to the west, but in a short distance they rise to Castle Cove, where they are seen resting against the Carbonaceous sandstones (c), and dipping at rather a high angle (of about 30°) ; they consist alternately of soft calcareous clays, and hard thin beds of limestone. Here I obtained very fine specimens of Terebratulce, labelled No. 5.

" The only other patch of Miocene, I believe, on the south side of the coast-range, occurs between the mouth of the Joanna river and Browne's Creek ; this is chiefly hard yellow limestone, containing, besides a small species of Serpula, very few fossils : the beds dip westerly and evidently belong to the Upper Miocene. The remarkable difference in the lithological character and in the prevailing fossils of these outliers, renders it a matter of difficulty to determine their relations correctly.