No. 3.] WILKINSON — GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 157 



5. Oolite limestone (Tertiary), very friable, from Bramble 

 Cay. 



6. Yellow calcareous (Tertiary) clay, from Katau River. 



7. Yellow and blue calcareous clays (Tertiary), from Yule 

 Island and Hall's Sound. 



It is with reference more particularly to the fossiliferous clays 

 that I would offer a few remarks. 



These clays, as indicated by the fossils contained in them, 

 belong to the Lower Miocene Tertiary period. 



So far as I am aware, this is the first notice of such fossils 

 having been discovered in New Guinea ; and this discovery of 

 Mr. Macleay's is the more interesting inasmuch as the Miocene 

 marine beds, which occupy a considerable area in Victoria and 

 South Australia, have nowhere been found on the eastern coast 

 of Australia, north of the Victorian border — Cape Howe. Refer- 

 ring to this fact the Rev. W. B. Clarke says that, " throughout 

 the whole of Eastern Australia, including New South Wales and 

 Queensland, no Tertiary marine deposits have been discovered." 



The comparison of this Miocene fauna from a locality so near 

 the equator, with that from higher latitudes, will be important 

 work for a palaeontologist. 



Professor McCoy has already gone far to prove, from the com- 

 parison of certain Miocene fossils, that the fauna of the Older 

 Tertiary period in Australia was not so restricted in its geogra- 

 phical range as it now is, but was then closely related generically, 

 and even specifically, to that of many parts of Europe and America. 

 And I think that, perhaps, even the few fossils now before us 

 may afford some additional evidence in confirmation of the views 

 of that eminent palaeontologist. 



The Miocene clay beds of New Guinea, judging from the spe- 

 cimens collected by Mr. Macleay, are exactly similar in litholo- 

 gical character to the Lower Miocene beds near Geelong, and on 

 the Cape Otway coast in Victoria. 



The fossils from Hall's Sound are unfortunately not in a good 

 state of preservation, being mostly imperfect casts ; but amongst 

 them appear to be the following genera : — 



Voluta macroptera, a small specimen ; Volula anti-cingulata, 

 Ostrea, Cytheroea, Crassatella f Pecten, Turritella, Natica, 

 Triton ? Dolium f Astarte, Corbula, Leda, Venus, Cyproea, 2 

 Echinoderms. 



