Mr Etheridge on Fossils from Bowen River Coalfield. 265 



any doubt that the Broken Eiver limestone beds, containing 

 Favosites, etc., are the lowest fossiliferous deposits in the 

 Queensland area, and their age is undoubtedly Lower Devo- 

 nian or ' Siluro-Devonian.' These are succeeded by the 

 Gympie group, a liigher series, with the Star Eiver and 

 Mount Wyatt beds succeeding, rich in Lcpidodendra and 

 Spiriferce. These Devonian rocks yield generally Lepidoden- 

 dron, LcptopMccum, Produdus, Spirifera, etc. — indeed possess 

 a fauna and flora closely allied to tliat of Canada of the same 

 age." The corals in question, contained in the Daintree Col- 

 lection, were not described at the time the remainder of the 

 collection was worked out ; but, as before stated, they have, 

 with those forw^arded by Mr Jack from the Carboniferous 

 beds of the Bowmen coalfield, formed the subject of a separate 

 paper by Prof. H. A. Nicholson and myself. 



Mr Jack informs* me that the Broken or Burdekin lime- 

 stone is perhaps 450 feet thick, and rests on granite. Its 

 upper limit was not observed, but it was believed to dip under 

 a series of brown and green sandstones seen at Dalrymple 

 and Dotswood. Mr Jack's observations quite bear out the 

 position assigned to these limestones by my father, as com- 

 pared with the succeeding series. He says in the same 

 letter, " The last-named beds I understand to be lower in 

 position than those of the Star basin, although these are also 

 seen resting on granite and mica-schist." 



The fossils from the horizon of the Fanning limestone con- 

 sist of five species of Brachiopoda from the limestone itself, 

 and two species of the same class from the shale above it. 

 The limestone at Bed Gap and Double Barrel Hill, which Mr 

 Jack thinks may be the same as that at the Fanning Eiver, 

 has yielded some corals ; but, as before observed, they are 

 undeterminable. 



(2.) Carhoniferous — Boiven River Coal-Beds. — The Bowen, 

 according to Mr DaintreCj-f* is one of the rivers draining the 

 northern or palaeozoic coalfield of Queensland, and from it 

 and Eoper Creek he mentions the following fossils : Streptor- 

 hynchus crenistria (Phill.), Spirifera striata (Martin), >S'. con- 



* Letter dated " Townsville," 21st May 1878. 

 t Loc. cit, p. 285, et scq. 

 VOL V. S 



