Nortienclature of Geological Age. 171 



Bearing on this Professor Tate^ justly remarks — "Thefaunal 

 peculiarities of the several formations are, moreover, such as to 

 raise the question — Are we right in adopting the chronology of 

 the European School V He then goes on to speak of the 

 palaeontological overlap of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic in the 

 Newcastle Coal-series, and a probable overlap between Mesozoic 

 and Cainozoic. Might there not be ground here for a typical 

 Australian development 1 Professor Tate's further remarks on 

 this subject- are well worthy of being quoted in full — " The 

 attempts to bring the order of succession of the Australian 

 stratified deposits in unison with that of the country in which so 

 many of the geologists have gained their early impressions have 

 at no time been satisfactory, and the difficulties are daily 

 increasing. Even at an early period of our geological history 

 there had been grasped the important idea that the geology of 

 the typical area of Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous of 

 Europe was not exactly comparable with that of Australia. This 

 is indicated by the hesitancy on the part of authors to assign a 

 given group of fossils to a definite epoch, and by the discordant 

 results arrived at when the age has been the subject under 

 consideration. Despite the desire to cling to home associations, 

 I think the time is fast approaching when it will be deemed 

 advisable to found an independent school for Australian 

 Stratigraphy." 



One of the objects of the International Geological Congress is 

 said to be towards the unification of geological nomenclature 

 throughout the world. This, however, seems to be a somewhat 

 large as well as a difficult undertaking, and it is somewhat 

 doubtful how far a general acceptance would be procured. Still, 

 legitimate work in this direction should receive the utmost 

 consideration and assistance. 



Next we come to a source of still further trouble, namely, the 

 application of local British terms to colonial horizons, which, on 

 the face of it, is an absurd stretch at correlation generally upon 

 the most meagre evidence. As a striking instance in this direc- 

 tion, note Professor McCoy's remarks on one fossil, namely, 



1 Presidential Address A.A.A.S., Adelaide, vol. v., 1893, p. 34. 

 - Loc. dt., p. 35. 



