344 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 



3.— ON THE OCCURRENCE OF FORAMINIFERA IN THE 

 PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OF TASMANIA. 



By WALTER HOIFCHIN, F.G.S. 

 Plates X. and XI. 



In 1889 Mr. Thos. Stephens, M.A., F.G.S., of Hobait, published 

 a short note in the Proceedings of the Roy. Soc. of Tasmania 

 (p. 54), on " Foraminifera in the Upper Palaeozoic Rocks." The 

 locality from which the foraminiferal rock was obtained was stated 

 to be "the north-eastern district of Tasmania," and the testimony 

 of Mr. R. Etheridge, jun.. Government Geologist of New SoUth 

 Wales, was quoted to the effect that this was the first record of 

 this division of the animal kingdom occurring in the Permo- 

 Carboniferous rocks of Australia and Tasmania. In the same 

 year Mr. Etheridge kindly forwarded to me samples of this 

 interesting rock, together with two transparent slides which he 

 had made by sectioning the stone. I have deferred until now 

 any descriptions of these embedded forms, influenced by the 

 hope that better material for their determination might be 

 obtained ; but, as this is not likely at present, it is perhaps better 

 to publish a few notes on the subject which may draw the 

 attention of geologists to the possible occurrence in other 

 localities in Australia of foraminiferal rocks of this age. 



Additional samples of the stone have been forwarded by Mr. 

 Stephens, and, in answer to several queries, has kindly supplied 

 the following particulars as to the stratigraphical position and 

 locality of the rock in question : — "• There is no particular name 

 for the locality where I found the foraminiferal limestone some 

 years ago ; but it is on the right bank of the RiA'er Piper, not very 

 far from a place called Lilydale. There are other outcrops of the 

 same formation, or one very near it, in the neighborhood, but it 

 was only in the one place that I was able to detect the foraminiferal 

 remains. So far as I remember, they were only found associated 

 with the characteristic fossils of the Permo-Carboniferous beds, 

 which were present in great variety ; but there was no sufficient 

 exposure of any section to show the thickness of these fossiliferous 



bands The rock belongs to the marine beds near the 



base of our Permo-Carboniferous Series, and is associated with coal 

 measures, containing a bed of free-burning shale, which appears to 

 be on the same geological horizon as the Tasmanite of our Mersey 

 district." 



The rock in question is a dark-colored, compact limestone, 

 exhibiting on its weathered faces gastropods, bivalves, fronds of 

 polyzoa, &.C., in bass-relief. When a fractured face of the stone is 

 closely examined, it is seen to be largely composed of minute 

 foraminiferal shells. Very few of these break clear of the matrix, 

 so as to expose their exterior surface, but suff'er fracture when the 



