416 Eemews — Geological Survey of Victoria. 



measures either Devonian or Permian, on account of some fossils 

 mixed in their strata, and identical with species of these different for- 

 mations. Would it be rational to admit that Eocene shells and 

 Eocene plants under the strata bearing Cretaceous fossil remains 

 may be so-called Eocene colonies descended into the Cretaceous, and 

 that the lignite beds underlying them represent an escaped member 

 of the Eocene, bearing, as it does, in its flora, its compounds, etc., 

 Eocene characters ; and that these Eocene members have become of 

 Cretaceous age by the only reason that some Cretaceous fossils are 

 seen over them ? As legitimate would it be, I think, to admit our 

 present epoch as Cretaceous from the animals of Cretaceous types 

 brought up by deep soundings from the bottom of our seas." (Eeport, 

 Ko. 4, p. 342.) 



Prof. Leidy's work (No. 5), already alluded to, is chiefly occupied 

 with descriptions of the Tertiary fossil vertebrata, and there is an 

 interesting section on the Cretaceous vertebrates. Two genera of 

 Birds described by Prof. Marsh, from Kansas, under the names of 

 Ichthyornis and Apatornis, are the most remarkable of their kind. 

 They have biconcave vertebrae, and the jaws are furnished with 

 teeth. Other Cretaceous birds described by the same author are Hesper- 

 ornis, allied to the Colymbidce, Graculavus, related to the Cormorants, 

 and a new wading bird, Palceotringa vagans, from the Greensand of 

 New Jersey. In remains of reptiles and fishes the western Cre- 

 taceous formation abounds. Among the reptiles are some of the 

 largest and most wonderful of their kind, represented by great 

 turtles allied to Atlantochehjs ; numerous species of Mosasaurus and 

 closely related genera ; the Polycotylus and the long-necked Disco- 

 saurus, allied to Plesiosmirus ; and Pterodactyls, with enormous 

 expanse of wings. This important contribution to extinct organisms 

 will be followed by a second volume on the same subject by Prof. 

 E. D. Cope, whose review of the Cretaceous vertebrata will be found 

 in the Bulletin before quoted. J. M. 



11, — Geological Survey of Victoria. (Melbourne, 1874.) 



THE first Part, by Mr. E. Brough Smyth, contains an account of 

 the progress of the Sui-vey since the last Report, from which 

 it appears that the areas surveyed and coloured up to the 'present 

 period include the Sandhurst, Ballarat, and Beechworth gold-fields, 

 the Cape Otway and Cape Patterson coal-fields, and the Grampians 

 and Glenelg districts. With regard to the Coal-fields, it appears 

 that though thick seams were believed to exist, more recent investi- 

 gations have shown that no workable seam of any thickness has 

 been opened in any part of Victoria. The statements made in this 

 respect in the Reports of the Board (pp. 91-124) appointed to in- 

 vestigate the subject have been corroborated by Mr. John Mackenzie, 

 the Government Examiner of Coal-fields, who, with Mr. Reginald 

 Murray, has reinspected and measured the Coal-seams; so that Mr. 

 Brough Smyth remarks, " There is no longer any doubt respecting 

 the character of the seams of Coal which have been discovered up 



