BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.G.S., F.L.S. 55 



lower beds of the carbonaceous formation consist of thick masses 

 of an angular brecciated agglomerate of small fragments apparently- 

 derived from the adjacent Silurian strata. A great similarity in 

 general mineral and lithological character obtains throughout these 

 rocks in the several districts. Alternating masses of hard and 

 thick bedded sandstone and argillaceous shale, occur in all parts of 

 the series, and occasionally thin bands of hard grey or brown 

 calcareous rocks are met with, so that there are no distinctive or 

 characteristic groups of beds which would render their 

 coordination possible in widely separated localities. The 

 prevailing color of the strata, especially of the sandy beds, is a 

 dull greenish gray, occasionally passing into brown. The shales 

 are commonly dark grey, blue or almost black ; and the latter 

 often contain a good deal of sulphide of iron. Not unfrequently 

 large portions of thick branches or trunks of trees are met with, 

 horizontally imbedded. Calcareous spar occurs either in veins or 

 forming a thin coating on the faces of the joints, and concretionary 

 nodules of carbonate of iron. The beds are often spread horizon- 

 tally over large areas, with never a greater dip than 20 degrees. 

 There is much diagonal or false bedding. Thin and variable seams 

 of coal are found of poor quality, and never permanent as far as 

 they have been explored. The fossils are Phyllotheca concinna ? 

 Podozamites barclayi, P. longifolius, P. ellipticics, Tceniopteris 

 daintreei, AlethopAeris austrcdis, Sphenopteris sp. 



Tasmania. — Jerusalem basin, with the above fossils and 

 Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, Zeugophyllites (Podozamites) elongatus. 



Spring Hill. — The same fossils. Mr. Brough Smyth, found 

 Glossopteris browniana associated with the same fossils, from some 

 of these beds. Position uncertain. 



Queensland. — Desert sandstone, an eolian formation, in isolated 

 patches all over the colony. Fossils : Coniferous wood converted 

 into brown coal and jet. Lies above Jurassic coal. 



New South Wales. — Hawkesbury sandstone, a similar formation 

 all over the colony, but principally massed in the Blue Mountains. 

 Fossils : Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, T. indica ? (Dub bo). 

 Equisetaceous stems. Lies above Triassic coal. 



