308 Mr. F. M'Coy on the Fossil Botany and Zoology 



base 4| lines ; long diameter at smaller end 6± lines, short dia- 

 meter at ditto 3 lines. 



Not uncommon in the sandstone of Muree^ N. S. Wales. 



[Cephalopoda.) 

 Bellerophon micromphalus (Mor.). 

 Common in the impure calcareous beds of Wollongong, N. S. 

 Wales ; rare in the sandstone of Muree, N. S. Wales. 



Bellerophon interstrialis (M'Coy). PI. XVII. fig. 6. 



Sp. Char. Globose; keel obtuse, rounded; surface with sharp 

 spiral strise, each pair having two or three finer lines between 

 them, and the whole reticulated by sharp transverse elevated 

 strise, which form little tubercles at the intersections. 

 Closely allied to the Irish carboniferous B. interlineatus (Portk.), 



from which it is known by the strong reticulation of its surface. 

 Rare in the Dunvegan shale, N. S. Wales. Width 4 lines. 



Nautilus. 



A species resembling the carboniferous N. sulcatus, but too 

 imperfect for specific determination, occurs in the Dunvegan 

 shale, N.S.Wales. 



Conclusion. 



Having far exceeded the limits I had originally intended for 

 the preceding part of this paper, I find it only possible to give a 

 brief outline of those general topics on which I intended to have 

 dwelt. First, as to what has been already done : geologists are 

 familiar, from the labours of M. de Strzelecki and others, with 

 the fact that there exists a series of stratified deposits, consisting 

 of siliceous and argillaceous slates, limestones and sandstones, 

 stretching at irregular intervals from the Liverpool range of 

 mountains in New South Wales to the extremity of Van Piemen's 

 Land, and forming detached masses, probably at one period con- 

 tinuous ; those contain abundant fossil remains of animals refer- 

 able to the palaeozoic period. 



Above these we have a series of clays, shales and sandstones, 

 with remains of fossil plants and beds of coal, occupying three 

 great basin-shaped hollows ; one in the district about the Hawkes- 

 bury River in New South Wales, and called the Newcastle basin, 

 and the two others in Van Diemen's Land, called respectively 

 the South Esk and the Jerusalem basins. The animal beds 

 containing the palaeozoic remains are found, with one doubtful 

 exception, to dip constantly under the coal-bearing strata, at 

 every point of observation ; for the most part at the same angle 

 as that at which the coal crops out : the exception alluded to is a 

 point near Spring Hill, Van Diemen's Land, where masses of clay 



