BY PROFESSOR STEPHENS. 339 



QUEENSLAND. 



From Mr. Jack's Handbook of the Geology of Queensland, 

 which contains also much of Mr. Dain tree's observations, we 

 obtain the following ascertained facts: — 



The Lower Carboniferous with its characteristic fossils appears 

 at Gympie. In the Star basin also, at the junction of the Big 

 and Little Star Rivers, tributaries of the Upper Burdekin, we 

 find besides Marine Carboniferous fossils, Lepidodendron atistrale, 

 Knorria inibricata, &c., these beds being no doubt identical with 

 the Lepidodendron beds of Gloucester, Goonoo Goonoo, &c., N.S.W. 

 The same beds with a similar but better preserved flora occur 

 also in the Drummond Range, which forms the watershed between 

 the Belyando and Mackenzie Rivers, and is intersected by the 

 Central Railway. 



Here the Carboniferous Flora ceases, as elsewhere, abruptly, 

 and we find the Glossopteris beds of our Uppe^- Carboniferous 

 appearing in the Bowen River Coal Field, in which three distinct 

 series of sedimentary rocks are presented. At the base of this 

 formation we find white and red sandstones overlaid by the bedded 

 trappean rocks of Mount Toussaint, Mount Divlin and Mount 

 Macedon. They are succeeded by Series ii., chiefly marine, with 

 strong evidence of Glacial action, and Glossopte7'is, and are identi- 

 fied by Mr. Jack with our Lower Coal, and Lower and Upper Marine 

 beds. The Third Series, of freshwater formation, which is repre- 

 sented also at the Oakey Creek (Cooktown), Little River (Palmer- 

 ville), and the Dawson-Comet-Mackenzie Coalfields, with Glossop- 

 teris Browniana, PhyUotheca Australis^ &c., corresponds to our 

 Upper Coal Measures. 



In the Burrum Coalfield, extending from the Burnett River to 

 Maryborough, and near Rockhampton, Glossopteris Broioniana, 

 and Tceniopteris Daintreei occur in association, a fact which has been 

 thought to be repeated in the Jerusalem Coalfield of Tasmania ; 

 •and Mr. Jack observes that " it seems probable we have 

 here a series of passage beds bridging the gap between the 

 Bowen and Ipswich Coalfields." This gap, in which Glossopteris 



