IXAUGrRAL ADDRESS. 15 



private enterprise, but was promoted by public subscription, and 

 the Treasury of New South Wales voted £ 1 ,000 to be distributed 

 among the members on their return, which sum was increased by 

 public subscription to £2,519. The narrative of Dr. Leichhardt*' 

 contains as much botany as geog-raphy, and is by far the fullest 

 published account of the tropical vegetation of the north and 

 north-east tracts and adjacent interior parts of Australia that we 

 possess. The accompanying maps and illustrations supply impor- 

 tant information respecting the physiographic and geologic featiu'es. 

 Necessity compelled him to abandon one portion after another of 

 his collections, so that the opportunity of determining the age of 

 the various deposits encountered from the nature of their fossil 

 contents was lost. This is much to be regretted, because for long 

 years this line of country was geologically known only through 

 Leichhardt's memoranda, which contain for some portions the only 

 information extant. He mentions the existence of coal on the 

 Mackenzie and Bowen Rivers, and sandstones with plant remains on 

 the Dawson, Comet, and Isaacs Rivers, and in other parts of Northern 

 Queensland, though the geological horizon is not recognised. He 

 describes the metamorphic and basaltic areas, and discovered the 

 fossiliferous limestone on the Burdekin River which the Rev. W. B. 

 Clarke referred to the Upper Silurian, but which is now classed as 

 Middle Devonian. The tableland of North Australia, which 

 reaches to near the coast, is graphically described, and its elevation 

 overlooking the Alligator Rivers is given at 1,800ft., reduced by 

 subsequent trigonometrical measure to 670ft. Hereabouts he 

 found evidences of a fossiliferous rock. 



Dana, Professor James D., was naturalist to the United States 

 exploring expedition during the years 1838-1842, under the com- 

 mand of Ci'.arles Wilkes. Sydney was visited in 1839-40, but as 

 the geology of the expedition was not published till 1849 Dana's 

 observations were to some extent anticipated by the published 

 writings of Strzelecki, Morris, Lonsdale, and McCoy. Neverthe- 

 less the credit must remain to Dana of having laid the foundation 

 of the classification of the great Carboniferous development in New 

 South Wales, both in respect of its palaeontology and stratigraphy. 

 Dana was, however, acquainted wi'h the palseontological works of 

 the forenamed authors, and incorporated the results in his own. 

 He describes the geology within a radius of sixty miles of Port 

 Jackson under three heading-s : — (1) Sandstone above the Coal, or 

 the "Sydney Sandstone"; (2) The Coal Formation; and (3) Argil- 



* Journal of an Overland Expedition in AusU-alia, &c., 1814-1845. 1847. 



