GBOLOGY OF TASMA^UA. 61 



The auriferous slate series, with sandstones and con- 

 glomerates, appear at Beaconsfield, Lefroy, Waterhouse, 

 Gladstone, Mount Victoria, Mathinna, Scamander, Fingal, 

 &c. Fossils are extremely rare. They comprise doubtful 

 fucoid casts, worm tracks, and, in one instance, a graptolite 

 is recorded from the Lisle slates. The specimen was found 

 by the late Mr. G. Thureau, and subsequently lost ; but, 

 from inquiries, it seems nearly certain that it was a Diplo- 

 graptus. Unfortunately, the range of this genus is too 

 great for use in determining the horizon of the beds. The 

 metamorphic sandstones of the St. Helens and Scamander 

 districts are referred doubtfully to the same horizon as the 

 slates. 



It is difl&cult tO' locate the so-called schists (slatesi and ar- 

 gillites) of Mounts Read and Black. These are charged 

 with complex gold and silver-bearing sulphidic ores of zinc, 

 lead, and copper. They may be low down in the system; 

 or, on the other hand, they may be contemporaneous with 

 the Lyell schists. The latter also cannot be placed de- 

 finitely, but, from fossil brachiopods found at Gormanston^ 

 it seems possible that they belong to the Queen River 

 series, greatly metamorphosed. The King and Queen River 

 slates and sandstones, charged with fenestellidse and en- 

 crinites, and casts of brachiopods (spirifera and orthis), be- 

 long to the Middle Silurian or the lower part of the Upper 

 Silurian. Silurian sandstones at the Heazlewood, towering 

 above the road at the 14-mile, and on the old .Grodkin Amal- 

 gamated, are referred by R. Etheridge, Jun., to the lower 

 part of the Upper Silurian. They have yielded the follow- 

 ing fossils: — Hausmannia meridiana, Cromus mtirchisoni^ 

 Gornulitcs tasmanicus, Rhynchonella cajiax, TentacuUtes sp. 

 ind. (Favosites grandipora in limestone). At Zeehan. the 

 sandstones, slates, and limestones, which are traversed by 

 argentiferous galena lodes, appear to occupy the same geo- 

 logical horizon, and carry the following fossils : — Haus- 

 mannia meridiana (in the Despatch limestone), Asaphus sp. 

 ind. (in the Despatch limestone), Illcenus johnstoni sp. nov. 

 (in the Despatch limestone), Cromus murchisoni (in slate), 

 Rhynchonella cuneata (in slate), Rhynchonella borealis (in 

 slate), Strophodonta sp. nov., Leptodomus (?) nucir 

 formis sp. nov. (in the Despatch limestone), Lophospira (in 

 quartzite), Murchisonia (in quartzite), Eunema montgomerii 

 (in the Despatch limestone), TentacuUtes sp. nov. (in slate), 

 Raphistoma (?) sp. nov. (in white sandstone). 



The general trend of the Zeehan beds is west of N. and 

 east of S., and their dip is to the N.E. at angles of from 

 60° to 70^. It may be mentioned that a high angle of dip 



