526 GEOLOGY OF THE CLARENCE RIVER BA.SIN, 



under vast accumulations of sediment, not less probably than a 

 thousand feet in thickness, and with a surface but little raised 

 above the sea. Meanwhile the lower beds of this formation were 

 becoming hardened and consolidated, the sands into sandstones, 

 muds into shales, and the debris of swamp vegetation and timber 

 into coal. These are the Clarence River Coal measures, which 

 have as yet escaped any thorough investigation. The fossils 

 which have been determined are few. Our President says 

 of the whole series " In the Clarence River district we have 

 certain Coal bearing strata, the relative position of which has not 

 yet been definitely ascertained. They consist of a great thickness 

 of conglomerates sandstones and shales. The seams of Coal as 

 yet discovered on them are of no value, but it is not unlikely that 

 seams of good quality will be found in the lower portion of the 

 series. No Glossopteris has been found in these beds, but as they 

 contain the Twniopteris Daintreei, Alethopteris australis, and 

 Thinnfeldia, they may be newer than the Wianainatta beds, and 

 of the same age — Jurassic— as the Victorian Coal series, of which 

 To&niopteris Daintreei is a characteristic fossil."* 



The Rev. J. E. Tenison- Woods in his paper on the Fossil Flora 

 of the Australian Coal measures apparently identifies these 

 Clarence River beds with the Ipswich Coal measures at Moreton 

 Bay.f 



The quarries now worked at both North and South Heads for 

 the supply of stone for training walls, breakwater, &c, in the 

 improvement of the entrance, yield large quantities of carbonaceous 

 fossils, such as whole trees straight in the trunk, and branching 

 radially like Pines, long straight leaves resembling those of Palms 

 or of the Pandanus when split, other leaves and branching stems, 

 shapeless lumps of carbonaceous matter, — and stems of Palm trees 

 or Pandanus, rugose on the outside and crushed into flattened 

 cylinders owing to the softness of the internal structure. Besides 

 these, specimens of actually petrified wood are frequent ; and in one 

 block I clearly saw a portion of a shell evidently belonging to the 



* Mineral Products of N.S.W. 1882. 



t Proceedings Linn. Soc. N.S.W,, 1883, p. 54. 



