AUSTRALASIA, NEW GUINEA, AND NEW ZEALAND 759 



to the position mentioned above, and such a zone of weakness 

 appears to mark the boundary of two geological provinces in 

 Eastern Australia. Benson has shown that in this heavy area the 

 Devonian and Carboniferous accumulated conformably, none of the 

 series apparently being folded until the close of the Carboniferous. 

 Carboniferous sediments are believed by some geologists to exist 

 in Australia south of this zone, but Mr. W. S. Dun, in a personal 

 communication, has informed the writer that in his opinion the 

 fossils from such sediments are to be referred to the Devonian 

 rather than to the Carboniferous. 



It is advisable, at this stage, to consider the general scheme 

 of folding for the Devonian in Eastern Australia, inasmuch as what 

 obtains for the Devonian in a general way, as regards its structure, 

 is true also of the Silurian and the Permo-Carboniferous with this 

 difference, that the analogies of form in rocks of the various periods 

 considered are to be sought in areas which succeed each other to 

 the north-northeast approximately in succession of time. Thus if 

 the Silurian has been folded strongly over a large area, it may be 

 found that the strongest folding of Devonian might be expected 

 to be found north and east of the southern Silurian folds, whereas 

 in certain areas of the strongest Silurian folding the Devonian 

 is to be found bedded almost horizontally. 



Thus in Tasmania the Devonian is missing; in Victoria it is 

 folded, apparently in two series separated by an unconformity; 

 in Eastern New South Wales it is strongly folded, whereas in 

 Western New South Wales it occurs as a series of gentle rolls and 

 folds, with small areas, however, exhibiting local nipping or sharp 

 folding within the complex basement of Cambro-Ordovician and 

 Silurian. 1 Reference to forms very similar will be made in the 

 chapter dealing with the Permo-Carboniferous. 



It may be mentioned here that a peculiar occurrence of so-called 

 Devonian sediments has been recorded from Northwestern Aus- 

 tralia by H. V. Woodward. 2 This observer mentions Devonian 



1 E. C. Andrews, "Canbelego Gold and Copper Field," Mineral Resources, No. 18, 

 Dept. Mines, N.S. Wales. See maps and sections. 



2 Report on Gold Fields of the Kimberley District (by Authority), Perth, 1891, p. 10. 

 Quoted from T. W. E. David's "Presidential Address," Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, 

 1893. 



