NATURE 



i8l 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1875 



THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF VICTORIA 

 Geological Survey of Victoria. Prodr omus of the PaL-e- 

 ontology of Victoria ; or, Figures and Descriptions of 

 Victorian Organic Remains. Decade I. By Frederick 

 M'Coy, F.G.S., Government Pateontologist, and Di- 

 rector of the National Museum of Melbourne. (Mel- 

 bourne : John Frcres. London : Triibner and Co., 



1874-) 



WE have at last a first instalment in the shape of a 

 Decade, from Prof. M'Coy, of Melbourne, Aus- 

 traha, upon the organic remains of that colony. It is 

 entitled, " Prodromus of the Paleontology of Victoria, or 

 Figures and Descriptions of Victorian Organic Remains," 

 Decade I. The preface, by Prof. M'Coy, states that as 

 the maps and sections of the Australian Survey would be 

 incomplete without figures and descriptions of the fossil 

 organic remains, it has been determined to issue a Pro- 

 dromus or preliminary publication of the Victorian fossils, 

 in decades or numbers of ten plates each, with descriptive 

 letterpress. The first decade contains matter illustrating 

 six different groups of fossils ; viz., the Graptolites, the 

 Marsupiata, the MoUusca (Gasteropoda), gymnospermous 

 and lycopodiaceous plants, and Star-fishes of the family 

 Urasterida?. We presume that this mode of issuing the 

 decade is an experimental one, as it will require eight 

 or ten numbers of decades to complete one decade of 

 a particular group, depending upon the number of plates 

 devoted to these particular groups as they are issued. 

 We should have preferred seeing a decade on the Grapto- 

 litida; completed at once, or the Asteriadre, or Volutids, 

 or indeed any other, thus forming almost a monograph of 

 some special group, as a connected whole, as it will be 

 long before a decade of any one group can be hoped for, 

 unless the Professor has a large stock in hand, and store 

 already prepared. If there is one group more interesting 

 than another, figured in the decade, it is the Graptolites : 

 the Victorian species figured are nearly all British, 

 European, and American ; no extinct organisms of 

 apparently the same species had so wide a distribution in 

 space. Hall, of America, Carruthcrs, Hopkinson, Lap- 

 worth, Nicholson, Baily, &c., have all elaborately written 

 (indeed still are writing) upon these mysterious;Hydrozoa ; 

 and Prof. M'Coy, of Victoria, and Etheridge, of Edin- 

 burgh, are now investigating the Victorian forms. Surely 

 something definite may be expected, or will be determined, 

 as to their specific value. Monoprionidian forms of the 

 genus Diplograpsus and Didymograpsus are the only 

 genera touched upon in the decade ; also one Phyllo- 

 graptus, P. folium, var. typus Hall, which differs little 

 from our British species, except in being larger. M'Coy 

 describes ten species, four of which are British of Lower 

 Silurian age. Our own gold-bearing Cambrian slates of 

 North Wales thus contain a fauna, the same in time as 

 those '' goldfield slates " of our auriferous colony. 



Plates 3, 4, and 5 of the decade and text are devoted 

 to descriptions of the mandibular or jaws of one genus of 

 marsupial mammalia of Australia, Phascolomya pliocenus 

 (Wombat). The mandibles only are figured and de- 

 scribed. The chief interest attached to this fossil arises 

 from its being the first ever found in the Victorian fer- 

 VoL. XI. —No. 271 



ruginous gold drifts or gold cement of DunoUy. Prof. 

 IM'Coy fi.\es the age of the deposit as Pliocene Tertiary, 

 corresponding in time with our upper crags of Norfolk 

 and Suffolk, and he believes the Victorian beds correspond 

 in age with the gold drifts of the Ural chain. 



Macropns titiaiiTiViA. yl/.^rMrj-, extinct forms of Kangaroo, 

 occur with this fossil form of Wombat. We look forward 

 to much original matter from Prof. M'Coy upon the 

 phytophagous and carnivorous marsupials of the Aus- 

 tralian continent. 



Plates 6 and 7 of the VolutidiC, especially certain 

 forms, are scarcely distinguishable from the Middle 

 Eocene species of our own country (Barton and Brackles- 

 ham) ; and the higher Oligocene Tertiaries of Europe are 

 represented in these distant Cienozoic deposits of the 

 antipodes. The Valuta anti-cingulata of M'Coy seems to 

 ustoreahse the alliance of our two British species — V. 

 amln'i^ua and Valuta digitalina. We have again a repre- 

 sentative form in V. aiitiscalaris, M'Coy, occurring in the 

 Tertiary and Oligocene clays of Modop and Mount 

 Martha. The Vololithes scalaris. Sow. (Middle Eocene 

 of Isle of Wight and Barton) and the Valuta nodosa. Sow, 

 (Bracklesham and Barton) are so closely allied to those 

 Australian Volutes that we fail to see any difference ; they 

 are truly representative. The remarkable shells, V. maero- 

 ptera, M'Coy, dLXiAV. Haniiafordi, M'Coy, are essentially 

 new forms, and throw fresh light upon the specific value 

 of the genus ; the great expansion and globose nature of 

 the wing or lip removes it from our British Crag Valuta 

 Laiiibertii, but to which in many other respects it is allied. 

 Part VIII. with Plate 8 is devoted to the description of 

 eight species of Zamites (Podozamites). This group of 

 gymnospermous plants are of much interest to the 

 pakeophytologist, and, in this country and Europe, 

 essentially typify and characterise rocks of Secondary or 

 Mesozoic age. The discovery in Queensland of a bipin- 

 nate or distichous Zamia (Bowenia) has changed our 

 views as to the foliage of this group of Cycadacea;, now 

 known to be compound instead of simple. M'Coy pro- 

 poses the sub-generic name of Doivernites for these com- 

 pound fossil Cycadaceas resembling the recent Bowenia. 

 The fruit found with the remains does not aid the Pro- 

 fessor in determining their true affinity, but he states they 

 more strongly resemble the fruit of the fossil Zamia: of 

 our Yorkshire oolites than the Araucarian type. The 

 fossil or e.xtinct British Cycadacese had long range in time, 

 commencing in the Lias and Uving through all the 

 Secondary rocks ; Fittonia, of the Upper Cretaceous beds, 

 being the last British form. The group is largely repre- 

 sented by many species in our Wealden and Purbeck 

 rocks. 



Part IX. and plate accompanying it illustrate one genus 

 of lycopodiaceous plants (Lepidodendron). This ubiqui- 

 tous genus occurs in the coal measures in every region of 

 the globe, and frequently in the Upper Devonian rocks, 

 but at the close of the Pakcozoic period passed away. 

 There is much conflicting evidence and information rela- 

 tive to the occurrence of this group of lycopods in the 

 true coal measures of New South Wales and Victoria. 

 Prof. M'Coy states that not one has ever yet been found 

 in the coal strata of New South Wales or Victoria ; its 

 occurrence in both areas named is entirely unconnected 

 with the beds yielding the coal. M'Coy believes that the 



