Geological Society. 219 



the same age with the superior deposits of Lower Styria, through 

 which it has been asserted in a former memoir, that basaltic and 

 trachytic eruptions have penetrated. 



Lastly. The superficial covering of the low countries of Austria, 

 called Loss *, is mentioned as being of great thickness and extent, 

 containing bones of extinct species of elephants, mixed up with ter- 

 restrial shells of existing species, which character, combined with its 

 loamy structure, is considered to indicate a tranquil period of deposit. 

 Recapitulating the principal points illustrated in this memoir, the 

 author recurs to that essential part of it, in which, following up the 

 idea of Prof. Sedgwick and himself, he endeavours to prove the 

 large development and persistence in the eastern Alps of certain 

 shelly deposits, of an age intermediate between the chalk and the 

 tertiary formations ; and he concludes by expressing an opinion, that 

 with more extended examination, geologists may arrive at the con- 

 clusion, that the disturbing forces which in the West of Europe 

 have destroyed the formations succeeding to the chalk, were local 

 phenomena, which operated through a limited portion only of the 

 earth's surface. 



Feb. 16. A letter was first read from Peter Cunningham, Esq. 

 dated Newcastle on Hunter's River, New South Wales, Oct.16,1829 ; 

 and communicated by John Barrow, Esq. F.R.S. &c. 



This letter is written with a view to give some insight into the 

 former state of the interior of New South Wales, and the writer 

 accompanies it jAvith a few organic remains ; amongst others, 

 with the second cervical vertebrae of a large animal found, on the 

 surface. He states, that a great ridge separates the eastern and 

 western waters, running from N.N.E. to S.S.W. and that in Liver- 

 pool plains the oldest rock appeared to be a hard, blue granite 

 with red sandstone on its flanks. Granite has also been seen at the 

 Wallanbai rivulet, at Carrington, and at Waybong, distances of 

 35, 55, and even 100 miles from the sea. In the Liverpool 

 range, it is said, there is a slaty, blue rock resembling grauwacke, 

 and that this is succeeded, about 26 miles up the Patterson, by a 

 coarse, red sandstone, and that again by a blue limestone. Another 

 limestone is described as having an oolitic structure with corals on its 

 surface. Most of the alluvial tracts in this part of the colony (Liver- 

 pool plains, &c.) are spoken of as consisting of rich, black, loose mould, 

 formed by depositions from the hills, which on the slopes arrays itself 

 into ridges, and in the plains into alternate hillocks and cavities. 



Much red sandstone with salt springs is stated to exist in the inte- 

 rior, as well as on the coast of the colony, and the red, loose, sandy 

 soil is said to be generally covered with the " iron tree", and with 

 long, weak spikes of flaccid grass. It is to the want of an admixture 

 of clay, or any retentive stratum, with the sands, that the author attri- 

 butes the great deficiency of water in the colony, boring having been 

 found quite useless throughout the absorbent sandstone country, al- 

 though in the immediate flanks of the primary ridges water gushes 



* See former Memoir, Phil. Mag. & Annals, N.S. vol. vii., p. 49. 



2 F 2 out 



