702 



REPORT — 1884. 



2. Loicer 

 recorded : — 



Coal-Measioea with Marine Beds, — The following plants lue 



ilff 



\v 



Ctcadeace-t:. — Xopf/r/prathiopsis, 1 sp. 



FlLTCKS. — Glossopteris, 4. 



EQUiSETACEJi;. — Annularia, 1 ; Phyllothcca, 1. 



In tlia marine beds, wliich are interstratififd, are found Lower Carbraiiferou-i 

 (Mountain Limestone) marine fossils in abundance, sucli as Ortlwccras, Spiriftr, 

 FenesfclUu Conularia, &c. Tlio plants belong to forms declared to be typiciills' 

 Jurassic by paltcontologists. As the interstratification of (lie marine and plant- 

 bearing beds has been repeatedly questioned by palicontologists, it is neccstiary to 

 point out that the <reolonical evidence brought forward by Mr. Clarke is of" the 

 clearest and most convincing character, that this evidence has been conilnned by 

 all the gecdogists who are acquainted with the country, and has only been doubti il 

 by those who have never been nearthe place. 



3. NvwcasHc Beds. — V>y all previous observers in the field these had been uiil!i.(l 

 to the preceding and the llora (leclared to be (he same. Dr. Feistmantel has, how- 

 ever, ])oin'.ed out im])ortant differences. Unfortunately, as he has been uiialjlo to 

 examine the beds, it still remains uncertain whedier the distinction, which has Ix^tn 

 overlooked by all the lield geologists, is quite so great as it appears from the lijt- 

 of fossils given. The following is the tlora : — 



CoNiFKR-K. — BntfhiplnjHum, 1 sp. 

 Ci'C.VWKACio.T;. — ZeudophtjlUtoi, 1 ; Nocf/fferaf/ii'ipxis', 0. 



FlLlCKS. — Sphcnophrinji; (rl<i.\-soj)teri,i,S ; G(iiiijaiiu>ptcriii,2; Caulopterisij), 1. 

 I Equisetace^. — riiijUothcca, 1 ; J'ertcbmria, 1. 



The only animal known from the bods is a heterocercal ganoid fish, Urosihents 

 auffrah'K, afonu with Upper Paheozoic ailinities. 



It win be noticed that the difference from the flora of the underlying bcil- 

 nssociated with marine strata is chiefly specific, and by no means indicative oi 

 great difference of age, (hough the only species considered as common to the tW'> 

 by Dr. Feistmantel is Cilnssoptcris broicnimia, found also in the Damuda series of 

 India, in Tonquin, and in South Africa. 



The plant fossils of the Newcastle beds and of the inidcrlying series wit'. 

 marine fossils are those which exhibit so remarkable a similarity to the flora ii 

 the Indian lower Gondwiinas, and especially (o the Damudas. The same geiifva 

 of plants, especially Xoff/ffrrdf/iiopsis, Glossnpfcn's, Plnjllotheca, F<v<£'i;'rtr«V/, prevail 

 in bo(h. But (he lower beds of Australia, to judge by (he marine fauna, are nf 

 J^ower Carboniferous age, and it is impossible to suppose that the Newcastle bed? 

 are of very much later date. They are said to bo conformable to the lower bed? 

 with marine fossils, and even to pass into (hem, and they should probably, if tli'' 

 lower beds are Lower Carbonilerous, lie classed as Middle or Upper ('arbonif roi;;. 

 Thus if the evidence of marine faunas be accepted as decisive, the Daimida bed- 

 of India are homotaxially related to Jurassic strata in Europe and to Carbonlffi'i' :- 

 in Australia. 



Ihit the Australian Newcastle flora has been quite as positively classed a- 

 Jurassic by European pala^o-botanists as that of the Damudas. It, would be <'ii-\ 

 to quote along list of authorities — Me( ^oy, De Zigno, Saporta, iSchimper, Carrutlier-. 

 and others — in support of the Jurassic age of the Austrahan beds. For years (!• 

 (estimony of Australian geologists was rejected, and doubts thrown upon (heir 

 observations. There is, so far as I know, no case in the whole bis(ory of paLfoii 

 tology in which the conflict of paloeontological evidence lias been so remarkabi; 

 displayed. 



4. JIntckeshnnf Beds, — The fauna and dora are poor. Only two fish, CHthrolqtr 

 firanulatus and Myriolepis clarkei, and one plant, Thinnfeldia odontopteroidex, ait. 

 known, and of the tliree forms two recur in the Wianamatta beds. 



An important character of the Ilawkesbury bed?, to which further refiioiu. 



.. i.Flli 



