10 F. Chapman : 



taculites [every effort has been made, both in London and 

 Brisbane, to trace this fossil, but without success — footnote by 

 R.E., Jun.] and a Leptaena (Silurian and Devonian) not speci- 

 fically determined. I have not been able to identify the 

 locality referred to by Mr. Daintree, but, as I observed both 

 the Star Beds and the Gympie Beds in the neighbourhood, I 

 think it probable that the Chonetes, etc., beds belong to the 

 latter." 



The specimens to which the above reference is made I have 

 lately found amongst the collections of fossils at the National 

 Museum. They were sent by Mi". Daintree to Prof. McCoy on 

 the 7th of September, 1866 (date on box label). The 

 specimens consist of negative replacements of the sponge, in 

 chalcedonic silica, and they ogTee in their general characters 

 with the better known examples of R. australis from New South 

 Wales. Whether these sponge-bearing beds of Mt. Wyatt belong 

 to the Gympie or to the Star Beds, they, at all events, show an 

 extension of the geological range of this species into beds of 

 Carboniferous age.^ 



Much has already been written on the structure of this 

 sponge, but I venture to add these notes on the Queensland 

 fossils on account of the excellent condition of the casts of the 

 inner and outer layers of the organism. Photographs of the 

 more important examples are included in this paper in order 

 that a comparison of its external features can be made Avith 

 the excellent figures of the New South Wales Keceptaculites 

 given by Etheridge and Dun. 



Condition of the Fossils. — The matrix of the bed yielding the 

 Receptaculites is a chalcedonic chert strongly permeated with 

 jDcroxide of iron. In every case the structure shown by the 

 fossil is a negative one ; the outer spicular layer and the 

 rhombic summit plates, however, are so faithfully preserved 



1 A few impressions of other fossils occur in the matrix with the Receptaculites. These 

 are referable to Leptaena analoga, Phillips, sp., and the species of Fenestella figfured by de 

 Koniiick under the name of F. uiultiporata, McCoy (Descr. Pal. Foss. N.S. Wales, Transl. 

 1898, p. 134, pi. viii., f. 1, la [non 4]). The latter differ from McCoy's Irish specimens, as 

 Mr. Etheridge, Jun., has already pointed out, in the small size and the delicate habit of 

 the zoarium. It is also more divergent in its method of branching. In view of these 

 differential characters, I would propose the specific name Konincki for the Australian 

 specimens. The above-named fossils add no further data for settling the precise horizon 

 of these sponge-bearing beds, as they are found alilie in the Star and Gympie series. 



