THE 
GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE 
NEVES RIES DEG ADE VOLT obi: 
No. XI.—NOVEMBER, 1916. 
ORIGINAL ARTICLHS.- 
J.—Eocenr \Corats From THE Fry River, Centran New Guinea. 
By J. W. GREGORY and JEAN B. TRENCH, University of Glasgow. 
(PLATES XIX-XXIL)?! 
We are indebted to the Trustees of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities 
of Scotland for a grant to cover the cost of the plates in illustration of this 
paper. We are also grateful to Mr. 8. Fingland for the care taken in 
preparation of the photographs. 
URING the expedition in 1889 and 1890 by the Right Hon. 
Sir William Macgregor, G.C.M.G., etc., up the Fly River, the 
largest river in New Guinea, he madea collection of fossil corals and 
limestones which he has entrusted to us for description. The specimens 
are rolled pebbles collected from the bed of the river, which flows 
between alluvial banks through low forest-clad country. Rocks were 
only exposed in occasional “bars across the river, and there is no 
evidence as to their succession or dip. 
The narrative of the expedition by Sir William Macgregor (1890, 
p. 56)” records the occurrence of pebbles of petrified coral, flint, and 
Beechous, at a little south of Macrossan Island, at the latitude of 
about 6° ‘5! 8S. He records limestone also at 5° "40'S. at the con- 
fluence of the Black River with the Palmer, which is the chief upper 
tributary of the Fly River. Sir William Macgregor considered it 
possible that the pebbles might have been washed down from the 
lofty riountain chain which he discovered at the head of the Palmer 
River, and which includes Mt. Bliicher in German New Guinea and 
Mt. Donaldson within British territory. The pebbles do not, however, 
appear to have travelled far down-stream, and the record in 
Sir William Macgregor’s journal of the association of flint, limestone, 
and petrified coral below Macrossan Island suggests that the collection 
was made there. It consists of specimens of compact coral limestone, 
in which the coral material is brown, while the matrix is cream- 
coloured. One specimen (No. 20) consists of white limestone, and in 
it many of the loculi of the coral are empty ; it may be younger in 
age than the rest of the collection. There are some fragments of 
white compact chert, in which the sections cut show no definite 
organisms; also a silicified coral, and a series of foraminiferal lime- 
stones, which are being investigated by Mr. R. B. Newton. 
1 Plates XIX and XX accompany Part I, and Plates XXI and XXII will 
appear with Part II of this paper in the December Number. 
2 A full summary of the narrative is given in Dr. Thomson’s useful work, 
British New Guinea, 1892, pp. 117-54. 
DECADE VI.—VOL. III.—NO. XI. 31 
