37 



those of West Maitland, to which no allusion is made in any 

 of the reports to which I have had access. The occur- 

 rence of the genus Glossopteins in the West Maitland beds is 

 one of the main facts upon which the supporters of the mesozoic 

 theory rely ; though there are some eminent authorities who 

 refuse on independent grounds to allow that its evidence is at 

 all conclusive. Mr. Clarke, however, did not base his argument 

 in favour of the palaeozoic age of the coal upon either the flora 

 or fauna alone, but upon their simultaneous or alternate 

 occurrence in the same geological formation. As regards the 

 the Mersey beds, and their relation to those of New South 

 Wales, it seems to me that an important omission in the 

 evidence has been made (which I have only noticed withiu the 

 last day or two), and that Mr. Clarke and others who have 

 written upon the subject hav^e had to form their deductions 

 without any guidance except that afforded by the marine 

 fossils. Now it so happens that among the very few plant 

 impressions which I possess from the Mersey coal measures is 

 a specimen of Glossopteris, probably G. hroivniana, obtained by 

 myself several years ago from the clod overlying the coal in what 

 was then known as " Johnson's mine," to the east of Tarleton. 

 It is almost incredible that the discovery of this fern should have 

 been made only by a passing traveller with a few minutes at 

 his disposal ; but as I cannot find that any notice of it has 

 been published, I think it desirable to place the fact on record. 

 We have now two distinct localities, separated by some 

 hundreds of miles, where the coal beds containing plant 

 impressions of supj^osed mesozoic age are overlaid by strata 

 with marine fossils, which are undoubtedly palaeozoic, and the 

 contemporaneity of the two formations is established. 



Here, however, we must pause, and be careful to avoid 

 drawing sanguine conclusions as to the existence of other and 

 thicker seams beneath what is known as the 2 feet seam at the 

 Mersey. Mr. Gould, who made a careful survey of the dis- 

 trict, and collected a large amount of information from the 

 borings and other works which had previously been executed, 

 points out that the coal measures have been proved to a depth 

 of 250 feet below the 2 feet seam without success. The 

 character of the coal itself, as compared with that occupying 

 the same geological horizon in New South Wales, is a some- 

 what discouraging feature ; and when we add to this the 

 excessive dislocation of the whole series by numerous faults, 

 and the circumstance of its position in a synclinal and pro- 

 bably shallow trough of Lower Palaeozoic rocks, it becomes 

 evident that in this particular locality there are no strong 

 grounds upon which a further expenditure can be recom- 

 mended, except in developing the seams which have been 



