29 



THIRD CONTRIBUTION 



TO THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TERTIARY MARINE 

 BEDS OF TABLE CAPE, 



WITH A 



DESCRIPTION OP 30 NEW SPECIES OF 

 MOLLUSCA. 



By Robert M. Johnston, F.L.S. 



lUead Sth Ap'il, 1879. 



The following record contains a list of 30 new species 

 of fossil shells now described for the first time, from the 

 Table Cape beds, together with a notice of the appearance 

 of two described species still living, but hitherto unre- 

 corded as fossils. 



It is with a feeling of diffidence that I submit these 

 descriptions to the members of the Royal Society of 

 Tasmania, for I am very conscious of the many disadvan- 

 tages under which I am placed, arising as much from 

 inexperience in this special branch of study, as from the 

 want of many necessary works of reference. The classi- 

 fication is so far provisional, that it is my intention to 

 have it submitted to the Rev. J. E. Tenison Woods on the 

 earliest opportunity. 



Personally, I would much prefer that they were described 

 by Mr. Woods himself, but his absence from the colony — 

 the danger of transmitting to a distance fragile, unique 

 specimens, not to speak of the rapidly increasing chaos of 

 new material on hand — constrained me to publish my own 

 private descriptive notes. 



That valuable and splendid work "A Catalogue of 

 Australian Fossils, including Tasmania and the Island of 

 Timor," so carefully compiled from the scattered writings 

 of various authors, by Robt. Etheridge, jun., F.G.S., 

 has been of great service in enabling me to see what has 

 hitherto been described elsewhere. Australian naturalists 

 are under deep obligation to Mr. Etheridge for this most 

 useful work, the result of years of patient labour. It adds 

 another to the many valuable works so generously adopted 

 by the syndics of the Cambridge University Press. 



