BY A. B. WALKOM. 141 



authors have noted deposits of Lower Marine age at a number of 

 localities in that part of New South Wales east of New England, 

 and north of the Hunter River. These localities are River- 

 tree[3], Drake[3], Joagla Falls (twenty miles east of Hillgrove)[l], 

 near Kempsey[16], Wauchope, Kendall[6], and between Taree and 

 VVingham[16]. These are all the known occurrences of undoubted 

 Lower Marine rocks in New South Wales, outside those in the 

 Maitland districttll], and near Mount Tangorin[lli 17]. Lower 

 Marine fossils have also been found just over the Queensland 

 border, six or seven miles west of Warwick. The distribution of 

 these occurrences is shown on the map( Plate x.), and they seem to 

 indicate that most of the north-eastern part of New South Wales 

 was covered by the sea in Lower Marine time. The probable 

 western limit of this sea has been drawn on the map. The faunas 

 which exist at these occurrences, and the type of rocks developed, 

 mostly indicate a relatively shallow sea, and also that the 

 deposits were laid down not far from land. The faunas include 

 typically such genera as Spirifer, Martiniopsis, Eurydesma, 

 Aviculopecten, Deltopecten , Pachydomus, Platyschisma, etc. Sand- 

 stones and sandy mudstones are the most frequent and charac- 

 teristic types of deposit; conglomerates are often developed, while 

 limestones are comparatively scarce except in the Kempsey dis- 

 trict. In the most northern part, the rocks have been altered 

 subsequently, and now consist chiefly of slates. 



The thickness of the strata which were deposited, shows that 

 there must have been considerable high land not far away. One 

 of the most prominent features of the land was a high range 

 running approximately N.N.W., in the present Tamworth dis- 

 trict, composed of rocks of Devonian and Carboniferous age. 

 This range is probably responsible for the eastward bulge in the 

 old coast-line towards Kempsey. 



Parts of the district between the Macleay and Clarence Rivers, 

 as well as the extreme north-east corner of New South Wales, 

 are composed of old rocks, which are generally believed to be 

 older than Permo-Carboniferous, but no fossils have been found 

 in them. It seems more than probable, however, that this view 

 is correct, and, therefore, a good deal of this area was probably a 



