BY W. X. BENSON. 225 



which he termed Devonian. He also recognised the occurrence 

 of coal in the Derra Derra Gap, west of Pallal, and described the 

 trachytes and basalts of the Nande\^'ar Range. A sketch 

 geological map accompanied the report (6). Considering the con- 

 ditions of their work, the reports of Clarke and Stutchbury are 

 remarkably accurate and comprehensive. 



In 1<S73, Professor Liversidge visited the then newly-dis- 

 covered diamantiferous drift near Bingara, and described its 

 minerological content (7). In 1876-7, Professor De Koninck 

 described a number of marine fossils from Pallal, probably from 

 the beds discovered by Stutchbury. These he referred to the 

 Carboniferous period (8). In 1881, Mr. Pittman gave an account 

 of the diamantiferous drifts of Bingara and the diatomaceous 

 earth near Barraba, referring them to the Miocene period (9). 

 Wilkinson reported on the Bingara drifts in 1886(10); and 

 Anderson carefully mapped them, as well as those near the 

 junction of Cope's Creek and the Gwydir River (11). He 

 gave a general account of the geology of the Bingara district, 

 the Paling Yard, Woods' Reef, and Tea-Tree Creek, together 

 with a sketch map in 1887(i2). In 1891, Mr. Etheridge de- 

 scribed the Tertiary Drifts of Bingara(13), and Professor (then 

 Geological Surveyor) David noted the occurrence of cinnabar, 

 where serpentine invades limestone near Bingara (14). The 

 last-mentioned geologist, in 1893, suggested that the red jaspers 

 of Bingara (and of Nundle) might be abyssal deposits (15); and, 

 three years later, announced the presence of radiolaria in them(i6), 

 giving further particulars of the jaspers near Barraba in his 

 classic paper of 1899(17). 



Mr. G. A. Stonier re-examined the Bingara diamond-field in 

 1894, and added a most useful sketch map of the region between 

 the Horton River and New England. He noted further in- 

 stances of the Carboniferous marine fossils (18), and the presence 

 of a plant, probably Rhacopferis sp., in the Slaughterhouse Creek 

 Range (18, 19, 20). Mr. Pittman found further Carboniferous 

 marine fossils at Rocky Creek (23), and Tieniopteris in the sand- 

 stones of the Slaughterhouse Creek Range. Stonier noted the 



