\ 



PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 591 



allied to C. Kiltorkense. Stigmaria sp. ind., Tenisoii-Woods, 

 Cordaites australis, McCoy, Phillipsia dubia and Rhynchonella 

 pleiirodon may be specially mentioned amongst the associated 

 fossil fauna. The Star beds have not a single species, as far as 

 known, common to the Burdekin beds (Middle Devonian). 



The absence of both Rhacopteris and Archoeopteris from the 

 Queensland Carboniferous Flora is worthy of comment. Both are 

 found on homotaxial horizons in New South Wales and Victoria, 

 and the former fern occurs in great abundance, to the almost 

 entire exclusion of every other kind of plant but Calamites. In 

 New South Wales it ranges at least as far north as Branxton. 



(4) West Australia. Mr. W. H. Huddleston has described 

 Carboniferous fossils from the Gascoyne River.* Mr. A. H. Foord 

 has described fossils from the Kimberley District.! Mr. Hardman 

 has described rocks of Carboniferous Age as covering an area of 

 at least 1500 square miles in the Kimberley District of West 

 Australia. They consist of a lower series of limestones from 1000 

 to 1300 feet in thickness, with red shales, marls, occasional layers 

 of gypsum and traces of rock salt, and an upper series of fresh- 

 water sandstones, 1500 feet in thickness. The Carboniferous 

 system is stated to owe its preservation in this district to a strong 

 N.W. and S.E. fault.J This limestone dips at from 5° to 35°, but 

 for the most part is only gently inclined. It forms bold precipi- 

 tous escarpments, such as those in Geikie Ranges and the Napier 

 Ranges. Hardman states, § " At Geikie Canon, on the Oscar 

 Ranges, in places these (limestone cliffs) come down sheer to the 

 water's edge, and everywhere they are crowned with the semblances 

 of ruined turrets and battlements that one could well imagine to 

 be the relics of some mighty Cyclopean fortress of the olden time." 

 It is dolomitic in places, in colour varying from light grey to pink. 



* Q.J.G.S. Nov. 1883, p. 582. 

 + Geol. Mag. New Series, Dec. III. Vol. vii. No. iii. pp. 97-105 ; and ihid. 

 No. iv. pp. 145-155 ; and ibid. No. v. pp. 193-204. H. A. Nicholson and 

 G. J. Hinde. 



X Report on the Geology of the Kimberley District, by E. T. Hardman. 

 By authority. Perth, 1884. p. 20. 



§ Loc. cit. p. 17. 



