Mr Ether idge on Fossils from Bowen River Coalfield. 267 



tity and of large size, some stumps possessing more tlian 

 forty rings of growth.* 



MrR B. Smyth, F.G.S., has, in the ''First Sketch of a 

 Geological Map of Australia," coloured the Bowen Kiver coal- 

 field Carbonaceous (Mesozoic), in a similar way to that of the 

 great JSTew^ South Wales coalfield, instead of Carboniferous. 

 Setting aside any deductions to be drawn from the plant 

 remains found in these fields as so much mere controversial 

 matter, it is difficult to imagine how Mr Smyth can reconcile 

 this mapping with the well-known occurrence of fossils of 

 true Upper Pal{?eozoic age in them, and about wdiich there 

 never has been any dispute. 



The fossils from the Bowen coalfield forwarded by Mr 

 Jack are numerous as to specimens, and tolerably so as to 

 species. They form the bulk of the collection, and afford 

 some valuable information, especially in relation to the pre- 

 vious investigations of Mr Daintree. Unfortunately for des- 

 criptive purposes, they are, as a rule, in a most miserable 

 state of preservation. The Brachiopoda are well represented, 

 and have proved a very troublesome series. Under this head 

 I am much indebted to Mr T. Davidson, F.E.S., who, with his 

 ever-ready kindness, has devoted time and trouble to several 

 obscure and difficult points wdiich have presented themselves. 

 The Polyzoa are not in great force as to species, and have 

 been anything but an easy group, from their always appear- 

 ing as badly-preserved casts. The Gasteropoda are almost 

 unrepresented, and the Cefhalojpoda only by one genus. The 

 Bchinodermata are quite absent, even to the usually ever- 

 occurring fragments of Crinoid stems, whilst the Bivalves, 

 although, as ever, an interesting group of fossils, are, like 

 Polyzoa, rendered unsatisfactory by their state of preserva- 

 tion, 



(3.) Cretaceous — Tate Biver Series. — The geology of the 

 North Queensland Cretaceous Formation has only, so far as I 

 am aware, been written on by the late Mr Eichard Daintree.-(- 

 Beds of Cretaceous age were first shown to exist in North 



* Letters dated "Don River," August 6th, and *' Townsville," October 

 12th, 1878. 

 t Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, 1872, xxviii., p. 278. 



