PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALASIA. 1309 



alluvial deposits derived from them, the greater portion of the gold hitherto raised in 

 Victoria and New South Wales, amounting to ,256,000,000, has been obtained. In 

 New South Wales they contain lead, silver .and copper lodes, among which may be 

 mentioned the celebrated Broken Hill lode, from which 7,762,549 ounces of silver and 

 31,027 tons of lead have been obtained up to the year 1888 since May, 1885. 



Ztevw/rttf. Devonian strata occupy considerable areas in Eastern Australia, < specially 

 in Queensland. In New South Wales they form the summit of Mount Lambie, over 

 4,000 feet above sea-level, and are there 10,000 feet thick ; they attain a great thickness 

 in New Zealand. Together with the lower Carboniferous beds they are also traversed 

 by rich auriferous reefs and copper, silver, lead and antimony lodes. 



Carbonifero-Permian. The next series in ascending order, the Carbonifero-Permian, is 

 of much economic importance, containing, as it does, not only gold deposited, but also 

 the vast coal-fields of New South Wales, in which fifteen seams of coal of an aggregate 

 thickness 102 feet of coal have been opened. It has been estimated that the coal from 

 these seams, at double the present annual output, would last for 25,000 years. The 

 series has been classed in three divisions the Lower, Middle and Upper Coal Measures: 

 the lower group consists chiefly of coarse conglomerates, about 5,000 feet thick, with an 

 abundant marine fauna ; while the Middle and Upper are together about 2,500 feet thick, 

 of fresh-water beds, two of the most characteristic fossils in which are Glossopteri and 

 Vertebraria. The same series occurs in Western Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. 

 The gold-bearing geyser-deposit in the Mount Morgan Mine, near Rockhampton, in 

 Queensland, occurs in the lower Carbonifero-Permian formation. From this Mine, in 

 1885-86, gold to the value of ,1,021,500 has been obtained by improved methods. 



SECONDARY OR MESOZOIC. 



Tr iassic. In New South Wales this series embraces the Clarence and Narrabeen shale 

 beds, the Hawkesbury sandstones and the Wianamatta shales, each containing plant 

 fossils, and the two latter, remains of Labyrinthodonts, with PaUeoniscus and other fishes. 

 It occurs with characteristic fossils in New Zealand. 



Liassic. The Catlin's River and Baston series of New Zealand have been determined 

 by Hector to be of this age. 



Jurassic. The Ipswich coal series in Queensland is regarded by the Government 

 Geologist, Mr. Jack, as probably belonging to the Clarence beds and of Jurassic age, 

 to which also Prof. McCoy, upon the evidence of the fossil plants, has assigned the Car- 

 bonaceous series of Victoria. They may, however, be of Triassic age. In New Zealand 

 they include both estuarine and marine fossiliferous beds ; the latter occur in Western 

 Australia, and in New Guinea on the Fly River and the Strickland River. 



Cretaceous. In New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Northern Australia and 

 Western Australia, an immense area is composed of strata which have been grouped in 

 three divisions the Lower occurring in Western Australia, and probably in places in the 

 central and north-eastern portions of the Continent ; the Middle chiefly in New South 

 Wales, South Australia and Queensland ; and the Upper, or " Desert Sandstone," in 

 Queensland. The Cretaceous strata, though generally forming country devoid of permanent 

 surface-water, are of great importance, as they contain water-bearing beds ; in the Middle 



