THE YICTORIAN NATURALIST. 53 



VICTORIAN PALEONTOLOGY. 



The annual report of the Secretary for Mines, Victoria, for 1889, 

 has just been issued from the press, and contains, among other 

 matter of interest to the geologist, a beautiful lithograph of a 

 new fossil fern, Sphcnopteris warrdgulensis (M'Coy), which was 

 obtained by Mr. James Tolmie, of Warragul, in the mesozoic 

 rocks, near a branch of the Lang Lang River, south of War- 

 ragul. 



Professor M'Coy, C.M.G., F.R.S., &c, in his report on the 

 palaeontology of the year, refers at some length to the examina- 

 tion of a large series of fossil fishes and plants from the strata at 

 Broken River, near Mansfield, in a locality which, some twenty- 

 five years ago, he had recommended should be coloured to 

 represent the old red sandstone on the Government geological 

 map. This collection arose from the discovery by Mr. Reginald 

 Murray, Government Geologist, some years ago, of a few 

 specimens loose on the surface, one of which, a large Icthyo- 

 dorulite, so Jike Gyracanthus obliqims (M'Coy), from the base of 

 the carboniferous series of the north of England, that it seemed 

 only separable as a variety, and would thus indicate the base of 

 the carboniferous period here. Another specimen was a cephalic 

 shield of a fish resembling the Canadian old red sandstone, 

 Cephalapis campbelllownensis, which he described as Rytidaspis 

 murrayi. As nothing of this sort is found in carboniferous rocks, 

 while Gyracanthus had lately been found in the Canadian 

 Devonian, he represented to the Secretary for Mines the 

 importance of procuring more fossils from the beds, which he 

 considered indicated the base of the Carboniferous series, and 

 top of the Devonian series, in order to determine the age more 

 exactly, it being of importance to fix a base for the true or 

 Palaeozoic Carboniferous system of Victoria. The result was 

 that sufficient funds were provided to enable the Rev. A. W. 

 Cresswell, M.A., and Mr. G. Sweet, both members of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club, to employ labourers to open up the locality. 

 The collections made testify to the accuracy of his original 

 suggestion as to the age of the rocks. 



The vegetable remains, found by Mr. Sweet in abundance, 

 chiefly belonged to a large species of Lepidodendron, quite 

 different specifically from /. australe (M'Coy), from the Avon 

 sandstones, near Bushy Park, South Gippsland, and figured in 

 the decades of the " Palaeontology of Victoria." The new 

 species has been named L. mansfieldense (M'Coy), as it is 

 common in the locality, and will be figured in the next decade of 

 the " Palaeontology." It belongs to a group of species chiefly 

 marking the base of the Carboniferous and Upper Devonian of 

 North America. The researches of Mr. Sweet show that the 

 beds containing the plants are at the top of the Mansfield 



