Reviews 



An Introduction to the Geology of New South Wales. By C. A. 

 SussMiLCH. Sydney: Angus & Robertson Ltd., 1914. Pp. 

 269, figs. 92, tables 6, with folding colored map. 



The present volume is a revision and enlargement of the first edition 

 which appeared in 191 1 and which was then welcomed as treating in a 

 concise and judicious manner the more important features of the geology 

 of New South Wales. After devoting one chapter to physiography, 

 detailed historical geology is taken up, period by period. One of the 

 most commendable features of the treatment, and one which will be 

 especially appreciated by geologists from other countries, is the summary 

 at the close of each chapter in which the essential and significant features 

 of the period are given in their proper relations. From this the reader 

 gets the correlations and conclusions of the author in a most convenient 

 and serviceable form for use. 



In New South Wales, orogenic movements are recorded in the pre- 

 Cambrian and Paleozoic eras only. The most important of these 

 movements appear to have taken place at the close of the pre-Cambrian, 

 at the close of the Ordovician, at the close of the Devonian, and, in the 

 northeastern portion of the state, also at the close of the Carboniferous 

 and of the Permo-Carboniferous periods. But it is worthy of note that 

 throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, the crustal movements, 

 not only of New South Wales, but also of Australia as a whole, appear 

 to have been almost entirely of the epeirogenic type. 



Bearing upon the existence of the hypothetical Gondwana land, in 

 the opinion of the reviewer, is Siissmilch's statement that from New 

 South Wales, in common with the rest of Australia, the extraordinary 

 group of terrestrial and flying reptiles which dominated the Mesozoic 

 land life of Europe and North America is conspicuously absent, the 

 only vertebrates known to have lived during this era being fish, amphibia, 

 and a few marine reptiles. If Australia had been connected by land with 

 Asia, and especially with South Africa, where terrestrial vertebrates were 

 so remarkably deployed and developed early in the Mesozoic, these 

 animals should have invaded Australia also. The higher terrestrial 

 reptiles seem to have been as completely cut off from Australia during the 

 Mesozoic era as were the placental mammals in the Cenozoic. 



R. T. C. 



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