BT PROFESSOR STEPHENS, M.A. 599 



tliat " about 75 feet below tbe base o£ tlie upper Coalmeasures 

 occurs a bed of ferruginous conglomerate of the upper marine 

 series, containing abundance of Spirifera vespertilio, Spirifera, 

 JProducta, Euomphalus't JPecteii, Coniclarta, &c. These beds 

 appear to have a slight dip to the north-east, and to be conform- 

 able to the overlying Glossopteris beds." The fossils here 

 mentioned were obtained from a shaft sunk in the Marangaroo 

 flat, about 40 chains east of the platform. Again, at the head of 

 Piper's flat, Avhere the railway crosses the great dividing range, 

 he notes "Ferruginous conglomerate containing Ooniolaria.''' 

 Isovi this Ferruginous Conglomerate is the very same stuff as the 

 dark Mulatto conglomerate of which I have previously spoken. 

 The chemical changes by which it has been altered have not been 

 of such a character as to change any of the embedded fossils, and 

 so we have the delicate shell of Conularia still discoverable. But, 

 so far as my experience goes, there is no general abundance of 

 these marine forms. Mr. AVilkinson did indeed obtain them in 

 considerable numbers, but only quite at the hase of the conglomerate. 

 I do not think that they are to be found higher up, except in 

 rare cases. 



However, here is evidence enough of at least a partially marine 

 origin for the Marangaroo Conglomerate. Let us consider the 

 character of the stuff more carefully. We see in the Conglomerate 

 proper an extraordinary confusion of large and small pebbles 

 and angular blocks, varying, as Mr. Wilkinson says, from the 

 size of a pea to upwards of two feet in diameter, and sometimes, 

 as I have myself observed, to much more than double, if not 

 treble dimensions. These are embedded in a muddy sand, with- 

 out, in general, any sorting or sizing ; processes which are 

 inseparable from the ordinary action of tidal waters or regular 

 river currents. Here and there, however, we see particular beds 

 wdiich have undergone such a process of subsequent arrangement, 

 and appear as Sandstones or Shales, interbedded with the Con- 

 glomerates. The pebbles are sometimes derived from older 



