﻿Reviews — AiistraUan Tertiary Geology and Fossils. 417 



is the same break between the Secondary and Tertiary series. Mr. 

 Woods is of opinion that the weight of evidence is against the 

 theory advanced by some that any part of the continent has remained 

 dry land since the Mesozoic period. 



Mr. E. M. Johnston's paper deals with the strati graphical order 

 of the Table Cape Tertiary series. The surrounding country has 

 been subjected to a lai'ge amount of denudation, a capping of basalt 

 and basaltic tuff, 80 feet thick, acting as the protecting medium in 

 the immediate vicinity of the Cape. Beneath this cap is a series of 

 beds of white and grey calcareous sandstone, termed by the author 

 the " Turritella Group " from the prevalence of T. Warhurtonii, 

 Tenison- Woods. The deposit next in order of succession below 

 the " Turritella Group " consists of an " irregular agglomeration of 

 shells, bound up in a matrix of ferruginous-looking mud," and is 

 called the " Crassatella bed." The fauna of both groups is a copious 

 one, and they are respectively characterized more by the prevalence 

 of certain forms in each, and the gradual diminution or increase of 

 these, as the case may be, as we pass from one series to the other, 

 than by the restriction of species to each bed. All that can be said 

 is that the Turritella Group and Crassatella bed were accumulated 

 under somewhat different conditions to one another. This marine 

 deposit rests upon a highly indurated conglomerate floor, which 

 probably corresponds to a conglomerate described by Mr. Gould on 

 the Dial Eange, as of Silurian age. At the Table Cape this con- 

 glomerate appears to rest unconformably on slate rock. 



The species obtained by Mr. Johnston from the Tertiary beds of 

 Table Cape, 150 in number, were examined by the Eev. Mr. Woods, 

 and the new species described in the third paper above cited. 

 Eighty of these were found to be new, of which, 10 per cent, 

 are existing forms, and appear to indicate the Table Cape beds 

 as a deposit of the Laminarian zone. The Foraminifera are 

 abundant, and amongst the Corals are the only true reef-builders 

 met with in the Australian Tertiaries. The Brachiopoda are also 

 abundant, and the Echinodermata numerous, presenting some new 

 forms, whilst on the other hand the Polyzoa are scai'ce, a marked 

 contrast . to similar beds in South Australia. Eliminating those 

 fossils peculiar to the Table Caj)e beds, the majority are identical 

 with those of the S. Australian so-called Miocene, there being a 

 greater resemblance between the two deposits on each side Bass's 

 Straits, than between the existing Molluscan faianas of the two 

 coasts. The new species described by Mr. Woods are divided as 

 follows : — Gasteropoda, 48 or 49 ; Lamellibranchiata, 9 ; Polyzoa, 1 ; 

 Corals, 2 ; and by Mr. Johnston, Echinodermata, 1. 



The Polyzoon described is both a new genus and species — BusMa, 

 (B. typica, Tenison- Woods). We would merely point out that the 

 term BusMa has already been made use of in a generic sense hj the 

 late Mr. Alder for a recent Zoophyte, which he named Buskia nitens.^ 



E. E., Jun. 



1 Catalogue of the Zoophytes of Northumberland and Durham, Trans. Tyneside 

 Nat. Field Club, vol. iii. p. 156. 



DECADE II. — VOL. IV. — NO. IX. 27 



