BY THE REV. J. E. TENIS0N-W00DS, F.G.S., F.L.S. 51 



In 1879 there appeared in Brisbane, Queensland, published by 

 the Government printer, a report of Mr. R. L. Jack, Government 

 Geologist, on the Bo wen River Coal Fields. In this the author 

 enumerates Glossopteris browniana, Phyllotheca hookeri, and other 

 plants intercalated with beds containing Spirifer, Productus, and 

 other Brachiopoda, besides corals, and encrinites of recognized 

 Carboniferous age. 



The report of Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, the Government Geologist, 

 for 1880, contains references to fossils from coal formations in the 

 northern portions of the colony of New South Wales. 



I have not included in this list the catalogue of Australian 

 fossils by R. Etheridge, jun., and of the works in which they are 

 mentioned, but it will be useful to consult it where a good know- 

 ledge of the synonomy can serve as a guide. 



In 1881, the third volume of the Fossil Flora of the Gondwana 

 system appeared. In this, Dr. Feistmantel gives his final views 

 of the relations of the upper Newcastle seams. He regards them 

 as mesozoic (lower Trias), and very nearly on the same horizon with 

 the Bacchus Marsh sandstone, and the Indian Kaharbari coal beds. 



This includes nearly all the literature of the subject of any 

 importance. There have been a few more recent discoveries of 

 additional species of coal plants made by myself, which have been 

 recorded in the Transactions of the Royal Society and Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales for last year. 



Australian Coal Formations. 

 Upper Devonian. — Iguana Creek, North Gippsland, Victoria. 

 Red rubbly rock with slate-colored calcareous veins and patches, 

 overlaid by claret-colored micaceous grits, and hard olive flags 

 with plant impressions of Archceopteris howitti, Sphenopteris 

 iguanensis and Cordaites australis. The whole group is composed 

 of — 1, coarse conglomerates; 2, sandstones ; 3, shales. They lie 

 uncomformably on the middle Devonian, and pass quite conform- 

 ably into the lower Carboniferous.* 



* See Report of Progress Geological Survey of Victoria, No. Ill, 1876, 

 p. 237. In this report there is a most elaborate description of the Devonian 

 rocks of North Gippsland by Mr. Alfred Howitt. 



