STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF FOSSIL FUELS. 409 



roof is sandstone, marine fossils are present at a little way above 

 the coal. Locally, owing to increase of the alga, Reinschia anstralis, 

 it passes over to cannel or even to Kerosene shale. The coal seams 

 of this series divide toward the north, which David takes to be 

 wholly normal ; the Carboniferous had been elevated to form high- 

 lands on that side, so that the quantity of transported material in- 

 creased in that direction. The Tomago Series, sandstones, conglom- 

 erates and coal seams with beds of iron ore, has six workable seams, 

 which yield excellent coal but too friable for shipment, being infe- 

 rior in that respect to coal from the Greta and Newcastle. The 

 Newcastle Series has many coal seams of high grade and great per- 

 sistence. This series is notable because of abounding V ertehraria 

 in the floor and of in situ tree-stems in the roof of coal seams. 



Wilkinson,^ many years ago, separated the deposits into Upper 

 and Lower Carboniferous. The latter has marine fossils in many 

 beds, while in others Lepidodendron, Sigillaria and Calainites 

 abound, but workable coal seams are unknown. This is equivalent 

 to the Lower Marine Series of the Hunter River field. The Upper 

 Carboniferous has, below, the important seams at Greta and East 

 Maitland, separating the two Marine Series. The plants are spe- 

 cies of Glossopteris, Phyllotheca, Noeggerathia and Annularia. 

 Phyllotheca and Glossopteris occur on slabs, associated with char- 

 acteristic fossils, which McCoy, de Konninck and others have recog- 

 nized as Carboniferous. The Upper Carboniferous had been 

 referred to the Permian, but Wilkinson accepted this as only a pro- 

 visional reference. The characteristic plants are Glossopteris, Gan- 

 gamopteris, Vertehraria, Phyllotheca and Sphenopteris, but marine 

 shells appear to be wanting. This upper division is evidently equiv- 

 alent to David's Tomago, Dempsey and Newcastle. The Glossop- 

 teris of New South Wales is of interest because of the memorable 

 controversy between McCoy and Clarke,* in which the former main- 

 tained that the presence of this plant proved Mesozoic age for the 

 deposits, because in India it occurs in Oolitic rocks, whereas the 



3 C. S. Wilkinson, " Notes on the Geology of New South Wales," Sydney, 

 1882, pp. 44, 45, 51. 



*W. B. Clarke,. "Remarks on the Sedimentary Formations of New 

 South Wales," in Mines and Min. Statistics of New South Wales, 1875, con- 

 tains a history of this dispute, pp. 161 et seq. 



