82 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 



was founded on obscure and imperfectly-known material of Car- 

 boniferous age. Chapman, as the result of his researches, has been 

 enabled to complete and amend Brady's determination and diagnosis, 

 and has thus avoided the objectionable method of founding a new 

 genus for what are obviously similar forms, a result for which all 

 zoological students are thankful. He has also been enabled to under- 

 stand the obscure fossils known as Psammosiphon, Vine, as well as the 

 " Plaques des Rayonnes" and Astewcanthion of Terquem and Berthelin, 

 a result not less important than the elucidation of Brady's genus. Two 

 plates accompany the paper. Dr. Rhumbler discusses the phylo- 

 geny of the entosolenian Lagence in the Zoologischer Anzeiger, no. 474, 

 and the natural system of the Thalamophora in the Nachrichten der k. 

 Gesell. Wiss. Gottingen (1895). ^ n the latter paper he makes numerous 

 new genera, but we have not the space to discuss their value here. 



Australian Exploration. 



From South Australia comes the Report of the Government 

 Geologist, H. Y. L. Brown, on the Explorations of the Northern 

 Territory of that colony, made by him between July, 1894, an( ^ May, 

 1895. The Report is illustrated by photographic views and geological 

 maps and sections of much interest to students of Australian geology. 

 The discovery of Carboniferous and Cretaceous rocks, identified by 

 their fossils, which have been examined by R. Etheridge, junior, adds 

 two formations to those previously known from this region. The 

 Carboniferous rocks are on the coast, not far from Port Darwin, and 

 Mr. Brown holds out the hope that they may be found to contain 

 workable seams of coal. Auriferous rocks also have been discovered 

 near the mouth of the Fitzmaurice River, and more may well be found 

 in this hitherto unexplored country. Of even greater interest to 

 geologists is the announcement that an undoubted Olenellus, of Scan- 

 dinavian rather than American type, was collected at Alexandria, on 

 the boundary between South Australia and Queensland, in the far 

 north. The fossil is well preserved in a light yellow, slightly mica- 

 ceous schist. Cambrian rocks containing Olenellus are already known 

 in the Yorke Peninsula and other localities within 300 miles of 

 Adelaide, also from the Kimberley district of West Australia. The 

 present discovery considerably extends their range. 



In our June number, vol. vi., p. 364, we gave an account of the 

 investigations into sources of artesian water in Queensland. The 

 Government Geologist, R. L. Jack, has now sent us his Report for 

 1894, which contains a detailed account of the explorations made in 

 connection with this subject, together with a geological sketch-map 

 of part of the eastern margin of the artesian water district of Queens- 

 land by himself and A. Gibb Maitland. Apart from the main 

 question of water-supply, with which we have already dealt, the 

 Report contains a few items of special interest. 



Opportunity was taken to examine the " bone drifts " of King's 



