296 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 



From this brief outline it will be seen that there were four or 

 five stages in which life flourished more vigorously in the Bowning 

 series than in any others, and that the prevalence of life over the 

 area was intermittent. This intermittency was much greater than 

 would appear, simply from a perusal of this paper, for even in the 

 beds I have represented as yielding fossils in greatest abundance, 

 strata may be found in which none can be detected. The apparent 

 total absence of life from the area while the formation of the 

 Great Shale bed was in process, represents a long period even 

 geologically ; and on its re-appearance, a greater change than really 

 seems to have occurred might reasonably have been expected. 



Another noticeable feature in the fauna is the small number of 

 Spirifera, and they, like the Pentameri are confined to the lower 

 beds, chiefly the limestone and Lower Trilobite beds. 



The representative fossils of the Bowning beds show a very 

 suggestive parallelism in what may be termed typical forms, with 

 the European Upper Silurian. This parallelism is the more re- 

 markable, inasmuch as it occurs in beds situated in northern and 

 southern hemispheres, and in latitudes nearly the same. These 

 latitudes too, must then, as now, have been separated by a diflerent 

 climatic zone. 



CAVE PLAT OR GOODRADIGBEE BEDS.* 



Immediately westward of the Bowning beds, the Cave Flat or 

 Goodradigbee beds are met with. A s far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, they are not separated from the Bowning beds by any 

 intrusion of eruptive rocks. Their united thickness seems to be 

 much greater than that of the Bowning beds. They consist of 

 slates, shales, sandstones, and conglomerates, with a very large 

 bed of limestone, which is separable into two parts. The character 

 of the shales and conglomerates dift'er widely from those in the 

 Bowning series. In colour the former are violet, reddish, and 

 greenish-brown, and mottled. The conglomei'ates are composed 

 of finer particles, and therefore present a less shore structure. 



The strike and dip agree with that in the Bowning Beds. The 

 latter, in some parts is almost perpendicular, and at Cave Flat 

 ranges from 40° to 63° in the Limestone bed. 



Life. — The great mass of these beds below the limestone has 

 yielded no fossils. From a sandstone or hardened shale imme- 

 diately below the limestone at Cave Flat I have obtained a 

 Lingula and some Gasteropods. 



The limetone is rich in corals, some at least resembling the 

 form in the Bowning limestone. The Brachiopods are specifically 

 very diflerent. Most of the Bowning forms, and this is especially 



*To these beds the term " Muiruinbidgee Beds" has been applied, but this appellation 

 seems to me inapplicable, as the Murrumbidgee flows over so many beds, and therefore 

 renders the term too indefinite. 



