Reviews—Jack aid Etheridge—Geology of Queensland. 283 
The next succeeding Formation, named the Rolling Downs, is 
placed as the Lower Division of the Cretaceous; it is estimated to 
cover about three-fourths of the total extent of the colony. It 
consists of soft, crumbling, dark-grey shales, with bands of sandstone, 
ironstone and limestone, which rest nearly everywhere in the north 
of the colony, either on schists of undetermined age or on granite 
or gneiss, whilst in places it is conformably overlaid by the Desert 
Sandstone. The series is evidently of considerable thickness, and 
though mainly of marine origin, plant-beds and coal-seams occa- 
sionally occur in it. It is very rich in fossils, which include 
Foraminifera, Sponges, Brachiopods, Pelecypods, Gasteropods, and 
Cephalopods. Fragments of the skeletons of Icthyosaurus and 
Plesiosaurus, and specimens of the Mesozoic Ganoid Belonostomus 
have also been met with. Two new genera of the Aviculide are 
proposed by Mr. Etheridge for shells occurring in this division ; 
one, Pseudavicula, of which the type is Lucina anomala, Moore, and 
the other Maccoyella, for Avicula Barklyi, Moore. Mr. Etheridge 
considers that the Rolling Downs Formation contains an admixture 
of Oolitic as well as Cretaceous forms. The most prevalent fossils 
in it are Inoceramus and Belemnites. 
The Desert Sandstone, which is considered to be of Upper Cre- 
taceous age, is thought to have formerly covered three-fourths of the 
colony, but it is now restricted to narrow areas of table-lands which 
rest on the Rolling Downs Formation and older rocks. It appears 
principally to consist of sandstones and conglomerates, mostly of 
quartz pebbles. Some portions of these rocks may possibly be of 
lacustrine origin, whilst in others shells of Ostrea and other — 
marine bivalves occur. A few plant remains have also been found 
in this formation; the most important of these are specimens of 
undoubted Glossopteris, a fern which has been by some authorities 
considered characteristic of Paleozoic strata, though Prof. McCoy 
restricted it to the Mesozoic. In Queensland, previous to its dis- 
covery in the Desert Sandstone or Upper Cretaceous, it was only 
known from the Permo-Carboniferous of the Bowen River Coal-field. 
The same genus, as is well-known, occurs in the Jurassic strata of 
India. 
There is no distinct evidence of the occurrence of Tertiary strata 
in Queensland, but this period seems to have been marked by move- 
ments of elevation accompanied by great volcanic activity. The 
volcanic rocks have been divided into a Lower series, which was laid 
down after the elevation of the Desert Sandstone and before it had 
been denuded to any great extent; and an Upper series, which 
belongs to a subsequent peried of eruption, of which the vents are 
still extant. 
In all parts of the colony the remains of extinct birds, reptiles 
and mammals have been found in the post-Tertiary Fluviatile Drifts, 
mostly in breccias and indurated muds which represent the beds of 
old water-courses through which the present creeks have cut their 
channels. Very little attention appears to have been given to these 
fossils at present. The shells of fresh-water Molluscs associated 
