OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 433 



shown to exist/ in New South Wales, and as I have proposed to 

 confine my observations to those portions of the work which 

 have a local interest for ourselves, I omit further reference to 

 this portion of the subject. Mr. Clarke moreover refers to a 

 distinguished member of this Society, the Rev. J. E. Tenison- 

 Woods, as in his opinion, the highest authority upon this portion 

 of Australian Geology. I must also add that I have only 

 endeavoured to give a sketch, not so much of the Geology of the 

 New South Wales Coal, as of the latest views entertained by 

 our deceased pioneer. It has not been easy to ascertain them 

 in all points exactly ; though a few minutes' conversation, now 

 unhappily impossible, might have removed some apparent diffi- 

 culties, as, for example, what he really had come to regard as the 

 right place of the Clarence Beds.* And though it may be true 

 that opinions, as such, on Scientific subjects, are not worthy of 

 record, yet the experienced and veteran observer often attains to 

 so intuitive a perception of his subject, that even his unargued 

 dicta are to be received with respect and consideration. 



A well-constructed map of the Western Gold-fields, by Mr. C. S. 

 Wilkinson, F.G.S., has been issued during the past year under the 

 direction of the Department of Mines. It shows the geology of 

 Hartley, Bowenfels, Wallerawang, and Rydal, and the relations of 

 the Upper and Lower Carboniferous, Devonian, and, in part, Upper 

 Silurian formations, together with Granite, &c., in that part of 

 the County of Cook which surrounds the western railway from 

 Hartley Vale to the county of Roxburgh. Mr. Clarke has borne 

 testimony to the general accuracy of the details, and the care- 

 fulness with which they have been expressed. Another geoloo-ical 

 map, of the Oberon Mining District, has been published by the 

 same author, in the last Annual Report of the Department of 

 Mines, which also contains a reduced copy of the first. It is to be 

 hoped that these are but the forerunners of a series of authorita- 



* The diflBculties wliicli liave liitlierto obscured this subject, arising from the absence 

 of well marked marine formations above the Newcastle beds, are now in process of 

 solution by the exploration and investigation of the rich fossiliferons strata of New Zealand, 

 which are probably contemporaneous with our Upper Coal. It is in that country that the 

 key is to be found ; and Dr. Hector is sanguine that he has it in his possession. But I do 

 not venture from such fra;:?mentary knowledge as I have obtained of his discoveries, to 

 anticipate the detailed account which he has laid before the Institute, but which has not 

 yet reached Sydney. It will certainly be received with the greatest interest. 



