313 
NOTE REGARDING THE SILURIAN FOSSILS OF THE 
GORDON LIMESTONES, WITH GENERIC DESCRIP- 
TIONS, AND A SPECIFIC LIST OF THE ORGANISMS 
ALREADY NAMED AND CLASSIFIED, BY VARIOUS 
AUTHORS. 
By Rost. M. Jounston, F.L.S. 
[Read May 12, 1885.] 
Over thirty years ago the late Dr. Milligan obtained a very 
interesting series of Silurian Fossils from “the Gordon River, 
in the vicinity of the Macquarie Harbour, which was subse- 
quently lodged in the Suciety’s Museum. This collection was 
supplemented by a suite of specimens obtained from the same 
locality by Mr. C. Gould in the year 1862. Prior to the year 
1866, Mr. Gould made a selection of the most typical speci- 
mens, which he submitted to the judgment of Prof. M’Coy, 
who, according to Mr. Gould’s account, ‘“‘ immediately identified 
several of the species and most of the generic forms.” It is 
most unfortunate that in the account referred to, Mr. Gould, 
from want cf access to his notes, was unable to give a complete 
list of the spécies so determined, and I have failed to find any 
trace of such list elsewhere in any of our local records. Mr. 
Gould, however, stated generally that the fossils belonged 
principally to the family Orthoceratide, together with corals 
Murchisonie, and species of Raphistoma, and that from such 
evidence the position of the Gordon limestones was re- 
ferred to, “the very base of the lower Silurian of Europe, 
anterior to the described fossiliferous beds of Victoria, as mt 
as to the Calymene, containing beds of the Eldon Valley,” i 
Tasmania. In the year 1862, however, Mr. Gould gave a 
_ more definite enumeration of the more characteristic fossils 
then collected by him, as follows :—Orthoceratites, 2 sp.; 
‘Intuites, 1 sp.; Halysites, 1 sp.; Favosites, 2 sp.; Raphistoma, 
1 sp.; Orthis, 1 sp.; Rhynconella, 1 sp.; Huomphalus, 2 sp. ; 
Murchisonia, 3 sp.; in all 14 species so enumerated. 
It is interesting to note, from his remarks at the time, that 
though the fossils are very abundant, and especially observable 
in sections of the limestone rock exposed to the action of 
running water, the different beds or zones in the formation 
are not equally fossiliferous, and that certain species are more 
or less limited in their distribution; corals abounding in 
certain beds, and univalve shells and large chambered ortho- 
cerata in others. 
From that most valuable catalogue of Australian Fossils, 
by Rob. Etheridge, jun., I find a further and more ex- 
tended series of specimens from Tasmania West (no doubt 
from the Gordon), was submitted to Prof. Salter prior to the 
