If my first view of some of these fossils as belonging to the Cretaceous epoch was incorrect (though the first view of Mr. Moore himself was the same), and if they belong to the very base of the Secondary formations, as has since been surmised, they become the first extensive collection of Lower Mesozoic age from a recognized locality, and are so far interesting.

Disputing the opinion that they were the marine representatives. of the Coal-beds of New South Wales, I was inclined to admit that they might still be the representatives of the Wianamatta beds overlying the Hawkesbury rocks, which again overlie the Coal-beds; but Sir Philip Egerton's determination of the Palæozoic character of the fishes in these upper beds proves that the Wollumbilla beds are far above them, and have nothing in common with the New South Wales Coal-seams.

*

Baron de Zigno, in his paper+ " Sopra i depositi di piante fossili dell' America Settentrionale, delle Indie e dell' Australia, che alcuni Autori riferirono all' epoca Oolitica" (in which, I am glad to see, he arrives at a more satisfactory conclusion than in his former writings), has fallen into a mistake as to the Wollumbilla beds being connected with beds (7000 miles to the westward) containing a Taeniopteris, as reported by Professor M Coy.

Mr. Gregory's paper (1861) mentions, as a Cretaceous fossil, a Ventriculite in flint, and as "fossils of Secondary age" specimens of Trigonia and Ammonites from the Moresby Range, an Ammonite from Mount Albert, and a Pecten from the east of Wizard Peak. These localities in Western Australia are a kind of classic ground, as they were described (though not geologically) by the late RearAdmiral King, and afterwards by Rear-Admiral Stokes.

In 1862, a few fossils (probably from Mr. Gregory's collection) were exhibited in London, including Trigonia costata. In the same year I received a letter from Mr. Moore, dated 24th September, in which he mentioned that he had found accidentally in Worcestershire a collection of fossils sent from Western Australia by Mr. Clifton. Of these, between 50 and 60 species were made out, and 30 of them were in a block not larger than a sheet of note-paper. Of Oolitic forms he discovered the following:

Nautilus sinuatus?
Nerinæa?

Opis.

Ostrea Marshi.

Pecten (several species).
Pholas australis, Moore, MS.

Rhynchonella variabilis.
Serpulæ.

Trigonia costata.

Turbo.

Besides these were Ammonites radians (a true Upper Lias form);

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 1.

+ Rivista periodica della I. R. Acad. di Padova, vol. xii. 1863, p. 148.

and A. Moorii, Lycett, Myacites, and Pholadomya, considered Middle Lias, also occurred. The rock itself gave 56 per cent. of iron. This agrees very well with what Stokes says of the abundance of iron diffused and in blocks about Moresby Range and Wizard Peak. Mr. Moore tells me that there is nothing in common between this collection and my Wollumbilla collection; and if so, we have a distinction of deposits; and though not far separated in point of age, yet it is so far clear that the Western and the Eastern sides of Australia are not altogether identical in age, though the Carboniferous formation below the Secondary rocks appears the same. Although Mr. Moore did not know whence the fossils came, I think they certainly came from the neighbourhood of the Moresby Range. I believe the list was published by the British Association, but I cannot now refer to the volume.

In November, 1863, I received from the Honourable F. B. Barlee, F.R.G.S., Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, a case of fossils in a ferruginous matrix, containing

Avicula (of large size),

Astarte,

Nautilus.

Nucula,

Pecten (? vesicularis),
Pholadomya.

These came from about 15 miles north of Champion Bay, and probably from near the Moresby Range. A subsequent parcel of fossils reached me in 1864, from the same neighbourhood, and among them I find the following:

Nautilus (2 species).
Nerinæa.
Ostrea Marshi.

Belemnites canaliculatus (2 specimens). Ostrea (very small species).

Cardium.

Pecten (4 species).

Pholadomya.

Rhynchonella (3 species),

Serpula (2 species)

Trigonia (3 species).

Taking the general aspect and association of these fossils, and the occurrence of such forms as Avicula Münsteri, Ostrea Marshi, and Ammonites Moorii, it is almost certain that the nearest representative of the formation is the Inferior Oolite. The Nautilus sinuatus and Trigonia costata lead to the same conclusion; but another Nautilus in my collection appears to be new. It appears certain, at any rate, that the Moresby Range is the headquarters of the Jurassic formations in Western Australia.

There is no necessity to enter here on any discussion as to the palpable position of these rocks with respect to the highly altered deposits of sandstone to the northwards of them, though it would seem that the Trias is represented there. But I may properly add

* Discoveries in Australia, vol. ii. p. 387.

that, although there are abundant fragments of wood mineralized by silica and iron in the deposits, no traces have been found of any plants which occur in the Wianamatta, Hawkesbury, or Newcastle beds of New South Wales.

It was my intention to redeem my promise to the Geological Society, and send the results of further investigations along the Maranoa River. Circumstances have hindered this; but I may now mention that I have ascertained that the Mesozoic formations extend over an enormous area in Tropical Eastern Australia, that from the eastward of Wollumbilla to the Maranoa, and thence to the Nive and Barcoo Rivers, and so to the Thomson, the Belyando, and the Flinders (from all which I have received collections), there are formations which appear to me to range from the Trias up to the Cretaceous; and I anticipate hereafter a development of formations or groups almost as regular in succession as those in England.

From the Barcoo I have fish-teeth imbedded in fossiliferous rocks not unlike those of Wollumbilla; and from the Branston Range on the Flinders I have Ammonites, Avicula, and a fragment of an Inoceramus, in a grey limestone highly metamorphosed, jointed, and full of calcareous spar, the joints producing a regular columnar structure.

Belemnites of various species are common on the Nive, the Belyando, and the Amby Rivers, and at Bungeeworgoraï, on Fitzroy Downs, Pentacrinites being beautifully developed in the calcareous grit of Mitchell Downs. All these last-mentioned places are in Queensland.

I hope hereafter to be able to show distinctly the order of succession in all the Australian deposits. My present object has been to give a brief résumé of the discovery of Secondary formations in Australia up to the present year, and I must therefore conclude it with stating that it was announced at the beginning of 1865, in the Melbourne papers, that Professor M'Coy had received from a student of the University an Inoceramus, and a fragment of an Ammonite from Flinders, which he considered to be Cretaceous.

I have not included the Unio (U. Daintreei) described by Professor M'Coy from the Western part of Victoria, because it does not come under the head of Marine fossils; but I believe it to be the only fossil animal found in the so-called Oolitic deposits of that colony; and of course it proves nothing as to comparison of them with the Wollumbilla or Moresby Range beds.

PS. As a sequel to the above, and as almost necessary to the clear understanding of the perfect separation of beds with Glossopteris (which Professor M'Coy so long maintained were Oolitic) from those above mentioned, I may perhaps be allowed to state that no Glossopteris has been found in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, or in New South Wales except in association with beds containing fossils of Palæozoic age, that at Stony Creek in the Hunter Riverbasin the Glossopteris-beds are covered by from 2000 to 3000 feet of strata full of Upper Palæozoic fossils, that similar associations exist

in various other parts of that extensive basin (as proved by borings), and that Mr. Daintree, who was formerly on the Geological Survey of Victoria, but is now squatting on the Clarke River, in the Upper Kennedy district, has brought to me from the Bowen River Coalfield, fully 900 miles north of Stony Creek, the same species of shells and the same species of plants, occurring in the same order of superposition as at Stony Creek, proving that there is no anomaly in the positions I have assigned to the Glossopteris, and that it goes down as low as the Upper Carboniferous at least. It will be interesting to geologists to know that this is now so thoroughly determined that no doubt can remain in the mind of any honest controversialist.

I append two extracts from letters from Mr. Daintree justifying my statement:

:

Bowen, Feb. 10, 1866.

"In the Bowen River Coal-field your statement as to the Paleozoic age of the Newcastle beds is, so far as I could judge, entirely proven, since here we have Spirifers, &c., similar to those in Russell's shaft and the railway-section at Maitland overlying the coal-seams, Glossopteris being the most abundant fossil Fern."

After having gone to Melbourne and returned to Queensland, he writes as follows:

Brisbane, April 11, 1866.

"I send you a copy of what Professor M'Coy addressed to me after an examination of the fossils I took him, viz. :

"Your brown beds No. 2, are identical with the marine beds underlying the Coal of the Hunter †, the Productus brachytherus, Stenoporum ovatum, Pachydomus globosus, Allorisma curvatum, &c., fixing them. The Streptorhynchus is new, but of clearly Carboniferous type. I have no doubt of their being Upper Palæozoic.

"The plants are Phyllotheca australis, and Glossopteris Browniana, forms related to which in Europe are only found in Mesozoic rocks.'"

Mr. Daintree adds, "These types are all above the Lower Coalseams of the Bowen River."

The section Mr. Daintree described as clear and unmistakable, presenting beds distinctly lying over each other in regular order, and having below those already described others with Lepidodendron, just as, in New South Wales, the marine beds below the StonyCreek Coal (which, as we have seen, is covered by marine beds, which are again covered at Newcastle by Coal-beds) are succeeded

See section by Rev. W. B. Clarke, Trans. R. Soc. Victoria, vol vi., and sections of the Newcastle Basin, by Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Clarke.

t I. e. overlying the Stony Creek Coal-seams.-W.B.C.

by shales full of Lepidodendra, Sigillarice, and Ferns, which are also succeeded by limestones and other rocks full of marine fossils having a Devonian or Lowest Carboniferous aspect.

We thus perceive that in North Queensland as well as in New South Wales the succession is an alternation of plant- and animalbeds ranging through many thousand feet of strata resting on granites, porphyries, or slates, &c., of Lower Palæozoic age, and covered by the Secondary formations already alluded to, which have no connexion with the Coal-seams of New South Wales, and which do not, so far as is known, occur either there or in Victoria.

2. On the MADREPORARIA of the INFRA-LIAS of SOUTH WALES. By P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.B. Lond., Sec.G.S.

CONTENTS.

1. Introduction.

2. Description of the Brocastle and Ewenny deposits.

3. Remarks upon the Paleontology of the Sutton and Southerndown series. 4. The differences between the Liassic beds with Ammonites Bucklandi and Gryphæa incurva and those of Brocastle, Ewenny, Sutton, and Southerndown.

5. Notice of the Madreporaria of other British strata of the Brocastle horizon and of the Ammonites Planorbis zone of Great Britain. The Madreporaria of the White Lias and Avicula contorta zone of Great Britain.

6. Notice of the strata in France and in the Duchy of Luxembourg which have the homotaxis of the Brocastle, Ewenny, Sutton, and Southerndown series. 7. The geological position of the Brocastle, Ewenny, Sutton, and Southerndown

series.

8. General view of the distribution of the Madreporaria from the Keuper to the Ammonites Bucklandi beds in Great Britain, France, and Italy.

9. Conclusion.

1. Introduction.-Towards the end of 1865, Mr. Tawney sent me a collection of fossils from the Sutton stone in South Wales, and requested me to describe the species of Madreporaria contained in it. This description appeared as an appendix to the elaborate communication "On the western limits of the Rhætic beds in South Wales, and on the position of the Sutton stone," by E. B. Tawney, Esq., F.G.S.*

The species were but few in number, they were unlike any others from British Secondary rocks, and they presented rather a St. Cassian facies.

Little could be determined, from their study, concerning the age of the Sutton stonet; and Mr. Tawney could only give a qualified opinion upon this subject after the examination of the Mollusca. Shortly after these communications were read, Mr. Charles Moore sent me a large collection of fossils from the Sutton stone and from

* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 69.

For an admirable description of these rocks, see Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. i. p. 270, by Sir H. de la Beche.