AN ATTEMPT TO SYNCHRONISE THE AUSTRALIAN, 

 SOUTH AFRICAN, AND INDIAN COAL MEASURES. 



PART L— THE AUSTRALASIAN AND NEW ZEALAND 

 FORMATIONS. 



By Professor Stephens, M.A., F.G.S. 



PREFATORY NOTE, 



The following attempt to obtain a general view of the Geo- 

 logical History of Australia and New Zealand between the close 

 of the Devonian and the commencement of the Cretaceous 

 periods, might not unfairly be called a "summary of summaries,"^ 

 or "comparison of comparisons;" since it accepts the outlines as 

 drawn by competent authorities each for his particular district, 

 places them side by side, and endeavours to unite them by trans- 

 verse lines of isochronism. The same attempt has often been 

 made with more or less success. But it is in the nature of things 

 that our present conclusions on these matters can only be pro- 

 visional, and will require modification and adjustment with every 

 new advance in our knowledge. 



The works to which I shall refer generally, and from which I 

 shall quote without further notice, are the abstracts of the latest 

 results of Geological work in the various colonies as follows, 

 viz.: — In New South Wales, the Notes by C. S. Wilkinson, 

 Government Geologist, in the annual reports of the Department 

 of Mines ; in Yictoria, the Manual of Physical Geography and 

 Geology by R. A. Murray, Geological Surveyor for the Depart- 

 ment of Mines (Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1887); 

 in Queensland, the Handbook of Queensland Geology, by R. L. 

 Jack, F.G.S., &c., Government Geological Surveyor; in Tasmania, 

 a paper by R. M. Johnston, F.L.S., &c., in P.R.S.T., 1887 ', 

 in New Zealand from the Outline of N.Z. Geology, by Sir J. 



