46 ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE COAL DEPOSITS OF AUSTRALIA, 



(in the Quarterly Journal of the London Geological Society, May, 

 1865) designates "False Coal Measures" (Wianamatta strata of 

 Clarke). In any case all the evidence hitherto obtained, both 

 paleontological and geological, tends clearly to show that the 

 "carbonaceous." or coal-bearing rocks of Victoria, are newer than 

 paleozoic, and that a great break or unconformity exists between 

 them and the beds that contain Lepidodendron and other paleozoic 

 plants in eastern Gippsland." 



I need not follow the coal controversy through all the 

 different publications in which it appeared, nor need I give here 

 more than a very brief summary of its stages. The position of 

 Professor M'Coy was, that he did not believe that the beds which 

 furnished the paleozoic marine shells, and those in which Glossop- 

 teris, Vertebraria and Phyllotheca occurred, were one geologically. 

 He thought that there must be break between them which would 

 give a paleozoic age to the shells and an Oolitic age to the coal 

 plants. Mr. Selwyn's investigations in Tasmania, gave support to 

 this theory. That gentleman in his report, stated he thought thai 

 the Jerusalem beds with Thinnfeldia,Zeugophyllites and Alethopteris 

 were conformable to the beds containing true carboniferous marine 

 fossils. He subsequently found that they were unconformable. 

 Mr. Clarke maintained that there was no unconformability in 

 New South Wales. This appears in various papers and letters, 

 noteably one on the coal seams of Stony Creek, West Maitland 

 district New South Wales.* As early as 1863 Mr. Daintree had 

 (August 29), written to the Editor of the " Yeoman and Advertiser '' 

 in Melbourne, stating that having examined the beds at Russell's 

 shaft, Stony Creek, he was convinced that Glossopteris, &c., were 

 really intercalated with marine strata containing paleozoic fossils, 

 about whose Carboniferous character there would be no possible 

 doubt. This fact was confirmed in the many subsequent publi- 

 cations of Mr. Clarke, principally letters to the local journals, and 

 his little work on the Sedimentary formations of New South 

 Wales. I must refer my readers to the work itself for details of 



* Trans. Eoy. Soc, Victoria, 1864, Art 6. 



