81 



A TASMANIA^ SPECIES OF HALTSTTES. 



(By E. Etheridge, Jun., Curator of tbe 

 Australian Museum, Sydney.) 



Mr. Thomas Stephens, M.A., E.G.S., has been kind enough 

 to afford me the opportunity of examining a Tasmauian 

 species of Halysites from the River Mersey, between Liena 

 and Mole Creeks. Unfortunately, it has undergone so much 

 alteration by secondary replacement that specific identification 

 is rendered very diificult and uncertain. 



In 1862 the late Mr. Charles Gould published a report on 

 " Macquarie Heads," giving a list of fossils from the Gordon 

 Elver Limestone, and mentioned, amongst others, a species of 

 the genus in question. 



Mr. Stephens has favoured me with the following extract 

 from the report in question — " The following are the 

 observations* which I made at the last meeting of the Eoyal 

 Society with regard to the fossils contained in this limestone : — 

 ' In these rocks fossils are abundant ; they are only con- 

 spicuous, however, in that portion of the beds exposed to the 

 action of running water. It is exceedingly difficult to ascer- 

 tain their presence on a fractured surface, although they may 

 be abundantl}^ concealed in the specimens, and the ordinary 

 atmospheric agencies appear to simply disintegrate the rock 

 without causing the specimen to be exposed in relief, as is the 

 case with many of those upon the table. Hence it follows 

 that the ground for collecting fossils is limited to the surface 

 of the rocks, between the level (if the water and about 30ft. 

 above it, the greatest hnights to which floods attain — as might 

 be anticipated. The different beds or zones in the formation 

 are not equally fossiliferous, nor do they contain identical 

 species, one part being conspicuous lor the abundance of 

 corals, another of univalve shells, while a third is characterised 

 by containing abundant fragments of large chambered 

 orthocerata, etc. I shall briefly enumerate a few of the 

 most striking, chaiacteristic, and best preserved forms: — 

 Orthoceratites ... ... ... ... 2 



Lituiles ... ... ... ... ... 1 



Halysites ... ... ... ... ... 1 



Favosites ... ... ... ... ... 2 



Eaphistoma ... ... ... ... ... 1 



Orthis 1 



Ehynchonella ... ... ... ... 1 



Euomphalus... ... ..._ ... ... 2 



Murchisonni... ... ... ... ... 3 



* Macquarie Harbour— Report of the Government Geologist to Parliament, 29th. 

 July, 1862. Tasmanian ParUatnentary Papers, 1S6S, 



