355 
Illawarra, Pleurotomaria Morrisiana, P. Woodsii, Tellinomya 
Clarkei, Theca lanceolatu, and many others. With such 
equivocal information the evidences based upon a few marine 
organisms taken by themselves were of little value. Some, 
however, thought that the test of the diamond-drill, showing 
the absence of coal seams, indicated that the lower marine 
group alone were represented in the neighbourhood of 
Hobart. With this view, I was not prepared to concur as 
may be learned from the following remarks made at the time 
before the members cf this Society :— 
“ Tf, therefore, it be allowed that the Mersey and Southern 
and Eastern coal deposits represent different horizons, the 
evidences from marine organisms, taken by themselves with 
our present knowledge, are absolutely valueless, at any rate 
neutral. Itis from an examination of the plant remains, 
associated with the respective coal measures, that we have 
any grounds for separating them into different groups, as 
representing different periods. Thus the prevailing plant 
remains of the Coal Measures of the Mersey, which are the 
equivalents of the Stony Creek, Anvil Creek, and other coal 
seams in New south Wales, are Glossopteris Browniana ; 
equisetaceous stalks, broadiy and flatly ribbed, allied to 
the genus Schizoneura ; a curious orbicular form allied to 
Actinopteris ; and numerous impressions of a form closely 
allied to Noeggerathiopsis media. On the other hand, the 
Midland, Southern, and Eastern coal measures of Tasmania 
have generally as prevailing forms Alethopteris Australis, P. 
odontopteroides, Phyllotheca Hookeri, Phyllotheca vramosa, 
Sphenopteris alata, Zeugophyllites elongatus, and C'lossopteris 
linearis, and, therefore, the beds may, without doubt, as 
already shown by Feistmantel, Rev. W. B. Clarke, R. 
Etheridge, juur., and others, be regarded as the equivalents 
ofthe Upper Coal Measures of New South Wales. Regarded 
from an evolutionist’s point of view, it is very difficult to 
recognise any break, stratigraphic, or organic, between the 
upper and lo ver mudstone series of Australia, so far as the 
marine organisms of undoubted Paleozoic facies gave any 
evidence. If these subdivision were to be classed as Upper 
Paleozoic, and the Upper Coal Measures, according to various 
authorities, as Permian, Oolitic, Dias, or Mesozoic, the separ- 
ation must be doubtful and purely one of local convenience. 
I am not prepared to concur in regarding the sandy and cal- 
careous fossiliferous rocks occurring in the neighbour- 
hood of Hobart, and in other localities in the South 
and East, wholly as the equivalents of the Lower Marine 
Beds of New South Wales, for it was not only conceivable 
but, unfortunately, probable that the Southern Marine 
beds of Tasmania were formed in situations more remotely 
