SALIENT POINTS IN THE GEOLOGY OF QUEENSLAND. 203 



The BuiTum field contains good and numerous coal-seams, and 

 in the type district the formation is unaltered and very little 

 disturbed. On the outskirts of the field however the strata, 

 according to Mr. W. H. Rands, who has mapped them in detail, are 

 inclined at high angles, altered into a series of micaceous slates, 

 and finally rests upon granite. These altered rocks are veined 

 with quartz. The fact of the strata of the Burrum field be- 

 coming metamorphoised as we recede from the type district, till 

 it ceases to be recognisable, prevents our reading their earlier 

 pages. It is conceivable that they pass downward into the 

 Bowen River beds. 



The Stewart's Creek and Rosewood beds (Rockhampton dis- 

 trict) are obscure in their relations both to what is above and 

 below : at least their relations have not yet been noted. The 

 Rosewood fossil flora has been studied by the Rev. J. E. Tenison 

 Woods, who however, still regards their position as uncei"tain. 

 Their flora is, however, closely analogous in its main features 

 to that of the Ipswich formation. It includes Tceniojiteris. In the 

 Stewart's Creek beds Mr. Smith has recently found a fern which 

 may be Sacjenoptpvis. The Stewart's Creek and Rosewood beds 

 are probably newer than the Burrum formation. 



The Ipswich Coalfield has at its base a series of ashy sandstones, 

 grits, and conglomerates containing silicified and carbonized wood. 

 These may be seen in Brisbane lying unconformably on the 

 upturned edges of greywackes, slates and quartzose and mica- 

 ceous schists. To the ashy beds succeed brown, grey and white 

 sandstone, grits and shales, with numei'ous coal-seams, forming 

 the coalfield proper. These apparently pass upward into the 

 "Rolling Downs" (Cretaceous) formation. But the junction is 

 obscured and disturbed by the basalts of the Toowoomba Range, 

 which intrude into and flow over both formations. The coalfield 

 contains an abundant fossil flora of a strongly Jurassic facies, and 

 is probably the equivalent of the Clarence River beds of New 

 South Wales. 



The Rolling Downs formation consists of grey shales, bx'own 

 and greenish-grey sandstones, often calcareous, with occasional 

 limestones. They are mainly of marine origin, and the appear- 

 ance of Belemnites and Ammonites along with other marine forms 

 sufticiently marks the change from the plant-bearing Ipswich 

 formation, if it does not enable us to draw a sharp line on the 

 geological map. The Rolling Downs formation has its nearest 

 relation in the Cretaceous of Europe, but a percentage of its 

 fossils are Oolitic. I may repeat what I wrote two years ago, 

 and which is as true now as it was then. "It is remarkable 

 that almost every palaeontologist who has worked on Queensland 

 materials has come to the conclusion that fossils from different 

 localities must have been mixed up, and this explanation has 

 appeared to be specially necessary in the case of fossils from the 



