114 THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 



3. Small concretions of limonite, with polished looking 



surfaces, dredged up off the coast of New Guinea. 



4. Specimens of chalcedony and flint, from Hall's Sound. 



5. Oolite limestone (Tertiary), very friable, from Bramble Bay. 



6. Yellow calcareous (Tertiary), clay, from Katau Biver. 



7. Yellow and bine calcareous clays (Tertiary), from Yule 



Island and Hall's Sound. 



It is with reference more particularly to the fossiliferous el ays 

 that I would offer a few remarks. 



These clays, as indicated by the fossils contained in them, belong 

 to the Lower Miocene Tertiary period. 



So far as I am aware, this is the first notice of such fossils 

 having been discovered in New Guinea ; and this discovery of Mr. 

 Macleay's is the more interesting inasmuch as tbe Miocene marine 

 beds, which occupy a considerable area in Victoria and South 

 Australia, have nowhere been found on the eastern coast of Aus- 

 tralia, north of the Victorian border — Cape Howe. Referring to 

 this fact the Rev. W. B. Clarke says that, " throughout the whole 

 of Eastern Australia, including New South Wales and Queensland, 

 no Tertiary marine deposits have been discovered." 



The comparison of this Miocene fauna from a locality so near 

 the Equator, with that from higher latitudes, will be important 

 work for a palaeontologist. 



Professor M'Coy has already gone far to prove from the com- 

 parison of certain Miocene fossils, that the fauna of the Older 

 Tertiary period in Australia was not so restricted in its geo- 

 graphical range as it now is, but was then closely related generic. illy, 

 and even specifically, to many parts of Europe and America. Ami 

 I think that, perhaps, even the few fossils now before us may afford 

 some additional evidence in confirmation of the views of that 

 eminent Palaeontologist. 



The Miocene clay beds of New Guinea, judging from the 

 specimens collected by Mr. Macleay, are exactly similar in litho- 

 logical character to the Lower Miocene beds near Geelong, and on 

 the Cape Otway coast in Victoria. 



The fossils from Hall's Sound are unfortunately not in a good 



