EVIDENCE OF GRAPTOLITES IN TASMANIA. 



By T. S. HALL, M.A. (Melbourne University, Corr. Memb.) 



Read 'iOth April, 1902. 



At the last Sydney meeting of the Australasian Associa- 

 tion I discussed the Tasmanian graptolite record,"*^' and 

 arrived at two conclusions — Firstly, that Thureau had found 

 a Diplograptus, and, secondly, that, on the supposed identifi- 

 cation of an (Upper) Silurian graptolite, the Lisle slates had 

 been referred to Ordovician. 



After the publication of my paper Mr. Thureau wrote to 

 me on the matter. He speaks of the Lisle so-called grapto- 

 lite, that is, the one he had recorded under the useless name 

 of Diplograptus nodosus, as follows: — "I now recollect seeing 

 there {i.e., at Lisle, T.S.H.) dark elongated imprints — pro- 

 bably carbonaceous — in those dark-blue slates, but they 

 were too indistinct to be classified. . . ." Then follow 

 some remarks which explain the confusion into which I fell 

 in my previous paper through my ignorance of Tasmanian 

 geography. " With regard to the true, graptolite . . the 

 locality is about 10 miles from Strahan, on the old Mount 

 Lyell Road (Tas.), close to an old road-maker's camp and 

 stable, near a spring of water." This is the specimen which, 

 from Mr. Thureau 's conversation, I felt convinced was a 

 Diplograptus. Of the Lisle record I express no other opinion 

 than my behef in its worthlessness. 



During the session of the Australasian Association, at 

 Hobart, last January, while looking over some samples of 

 slate in the collection of Mr. Thomas Stephens, M. A., I found 

 traces of a graptolite in a specimen frorai near the Ring 

 River, on the North-East Dundas Railv/ay. I understand 

 that the rock samples had been given to Mr. Stephens 

 by Mr. G. A. Walter, Assistant Government Geologist. 

 The slate is a very Lard, much-jointed rock, with a silky 

 lustre, and the fossil is badly preserved. Some branched 

 talcose and ferruginous markings first caught my eye, and 

 on examination with a lens I found three or four thecae. 



* 1 Rep. Aust. Asa. Adv. Sci., v. 7, 1898, p. 401. 



