Nomenclature of Geological Age. 163 



deposits included under this name are more extensively developed 

 in the European area than they are known to be in any other 

 region, and it is doubtful if they can be regarded as a distinct 

 System." 



Then again we find several American authors using Permian 

 as a minor subdivision of Carboniferous of the same value 

 apparently as many of their local names and subdivisions.^ Yet 

 the necessity for a term intermediate between Carboniferous and 

 Triassic is very striking, and many attempts have been made to 

 satisfactorily fill the gap. Hence the unfortunate introduction of 

 another compound name, Permo-Carboniferous, which is perhaps 

 more uiisunderstood than most of the other composite terms. 



In Australia we notice the late Mr. C S. Wilkinson, 

 Government Geologist of New South Wales, in his Notes on the 

 Geology of that colony stating," " The Upper Coal Measures 

 have been provisionally classed as Permian, but it it doubtful 

 whether they should not be regarded as a division of the great 

 Carboniferous Series." 



Dr. O. FeistmanteP indicates the same age terms as Wilkinson, 

 and refers to the age of the Upper Coal Measures, New South 

 Wales, as follows^ : — " The age of these beds can be easily 

 guessed ; they lie above marine beds of Upper Carboniferous 

 age, and consequently most naturally represent the close of the 

 Palaeozoic Epoch, or they can be considered as approximately the 

 representatives of the Permian." 



Later in the same work^ the above author gives a table in 

 which the term Permo-Carboniferous is used to include in New 

 South Wales: 1. The Lower Coal Measui-es, 2. The Upper 

 Marine Beds, 3. Newcastle Beds ; in Victoria the Bacchus 

 Marsh Beds ; and in Tasmania the Mersey River Beds. In a 

 later table*' he also includes the Lower Marine Beds, New South 

 Wales, under the same head. 



1 Elements of Geology, J. Le Conte, p. 284 also. Economic Geology of the United 

 States, by R. S. Tarr, p. 47 ; &c. 



2 Notes on the Geology of New South Wales, 1882, p. 51. 



3 The Coal and Plant-Bearing Beds of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Age in Eastern 

 Australia and Tasmania, p. 41. 



•» Op. cit., p. 64. 



5 Op. cit., p. 66. 



6 Op. cit., p. 182. 



Ua 



