TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 107 



in assigning some of this mineral to the same oolitic a^e as the coal of Brora and 

 the eastern moorlands of Yorkshire ? In his survey of Tasmania, Mr. Goidd has 

 also made the important discovery of a resinous shale, termed Dysodile, and which, 

 like the Torbane mineral of Scotland, promises to be turned to gi-eat account in the 

 production of paraffine. 



There are, indeed, other grounds for believing that coal, both of the Mesozoic as 

 ■weU as of the old Cai-boniferous age, may exist in Australia. Thus, putting aside 

 the fossil evidences collected in Victoria by M'Coy and Selwyn, we learn, fi-om the 

 reseai'chcs of Mr. Fi-ank Gregory in Western Australia, that Mesozoic fossil8 

 (probably Cretaceous and Oolitic) occur in that region ; whilst the Rev. W. B. 

 Clarke infonns me, in a letter just received, that ho is in possession of a group 

 of fossils transmitted from Queensland, 700 or 800 miles north of Sydney, which 

 he is disposed to refer to the age of the Chalk, there being among the fossils Belem- 

 nites, Pentacrinites, Pecten, Mt/tilits, Modiola, &c. Again, the same persevering 

 geologist has prociu-ed from New Zealand the remains of a fossil saurian, which, he 

 thinks, is allied to the Plesiosaiuiis*. 



It would therefore appear that in the southern hemisphere there is not merely a 

 close analogy between the rocks of palceozoic age and our own, but further, that, as 

 far as the Mesozoic formations have been developed, they also seem to be the equi- 

 valents of our typical secondaiy deposits. 



This existence of groups of animals ditring the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, 

 and even in Mesozoic periods in Australia and New Zealand, similar to those which 

 characterize these formations in Europe, is strongly in contrast with the state of nature 

 which began to prevail there in the yoimger Tertiary period. We know from the 

 writings of Owen that at that time the great continent at oui- antipodes was already 

 characterized by the presence of those marsupial forms which still distinguish its 

 fauna from that of any other pai't of the world. 



In relation to our Australian colonies, I must also annoimce that I have recently 

 been gratified in receiving from Messrs. Chambers and Finke, of Adelaide, a collec- 

 tion of the specimens collected by M'Douall Stuart in his celebrated traverse (the 

 first one ever made) from South Australia to the watershed of North Australia. 

 Having had occasion to address the Royal Geographical Society on this point, and 

 to award its Gold Medal to that most adventurous and successful explorer, with 

 observations on the main geographical residts of his labours, including the discovery 

 of trees and plants imknown in other parts of that continent, I may here say, in 

 addressing myself to geologists, tliat a collection of rocks has been submitted to me 

 which may tend to illustrate the structure of the interior of that great continent. 



These specimens are soft, white, chalky rocks, with flints, agates, saline and 

 feiTuginous incrustations, tufas, breccias, and white quartz-rocks, and a few speci- 

 mens of quasi-volcanic rock, but with scarce a fragment that can be referred to the 

 older stages of Lower Silm-ian age like those of Victoriaf. Again, the only 

 fossil shells collected by Mr. Stuart (though the precise latitude and longitude are 

 imlcnown to me) are Mytiloid and Mya-liko forms, seemingly indicating a Tertiary 

 age, and thus we may be disposed provisionally to infer that large tracts of the low 

 interior between East and West Australia have in very recent geological periodg 

 been occupied by the sea. 



Co)ichmon. — In concluding this Address, I may assure the Section that, as one of 

 the original members of the Association, it gives me infinite satisfaction to return 

 to my old fi-iends in this great and thriving centre of our national industry. In 

 common with many of my associates who come from a distance, well do I re- 

 member how cordially we were received here in the year 1842 ; and never can I 

 forget how admu-ably wo were presided over by a nobleman J as distinoaiished 

 by his ability and learning as he was beloved for his philanthropy and public 

 spirit, and who had upon his right hand the illustrious Dalton. Looking to the cha- 

 racter and influence of that philosopher, I may truly say that, as he was one of our 



* Whilst this is passing through the press, Professor Owen has described this interest- 

 ing fossil, before this Section, as Plesiosauriis Australis. 



t It must, liowever, be noted that the collection sent to me consists of small specimens 

 of rock forming an imperfect series. 



J Lord Francis Egerton, afterwards the Earl of EUesmere. 



