286 Reports and Proceedings. 



in Khabooshan, Bojnoord, and the surrounding villages, by the effects 

 of these earthquakes. 



2. " On the Geology of Queensland." By E. Daintree, Esq., F.Gr.S. 



The author stated that alluvial deposits are very scanty in Queens- 

 land, except on the northern shores of Carpentaria and near the 

 mouths of the larger rivers. The fossil remains of extinct Mammalia 

 (JDiprotodon, Macropus, Thylacoleo, Nototherium, etc.) are found with 

 shells of existing species in brecciated alluvia, representing beds of old 

 water-courses, through which modern creeks have cut their channels. 



Of Cainozoic deposits the most important is called the " Desert 

 Sandstone " by the author ; it consists of horizontal beds of coarse 

 grit and conglomerate, nowhere exceeding 400 feet in thickness, 

 forming a sandy barren soil by their disintegration. The only fossils 

 found in it are rolled fragments of Coniferous wood ; and its strati- 

 graphical position is determined solely by its resting unconformably 

 upon beds containing Cretaceous fossils. The author considered that 

 this deposit formerly covered nearly the whole of Australia. 



Beds containing Mesozoic forms of fossils, and referred by the 

 author to the Cretaceous series, occur upon the Upper Flinders. 

 At Marathon these deposits consist of a fine-grained yellow sand- 

 stone, and below this a series of sandstones and argillaceous lime- 

 stones, containing four species of Inoceramus, with a species of 

 Ichthyosaurus and two of Plesiosaurus. At Hughenden station, near 

 Mount Walker, there is a series of calcareo-argillaceous beds, prob- 

 ably inferior to those of Marathon, and containing two species of 

 Ammonites, with Avicula gryjohoeoides, a Pecten, etc. At Hughenden 

 cattle station, twenty miles further up the river, numerous Belem- 

 nites are found loose upon the surface. These Mesozoic rocks also 

 extend down the Thompson Eiver and its tributaries. The author 

 referred to the fossils described by Mr. Charles Moore as probably 

 Oolitic, and stated that it is more than probable that Oolitic and 

 Cretaceous rocks extend throughout the whole of Central Queens- 

 land, and thence to Western Australia. On the eastern side of the 

 dividing range a small patch of ferruginous grit containing PanopcBa 

 plicata, occurs near Pelican Creek ; and from Gordon Downs species 

 of Panopoea, Pholadomya, and Cucullcea have been obtained. These 

 beds probably represent a lower horizon than those on the Flinders 

 Eiver ; and a large portion of the colony east of the dividing range 

 is covered by freshwater deposits, containing plant-remains (in- 

 cluding Top/niopteris) , and in their upper part a fauna apparently 

 intermediate between the Gordon Downs and Flinders Eiver series. 

 In these deposits, on the Condamine, Brisbane, and Mary rivers, 

 numerous coal-seams exist. The author supposes that, contempora- 

 neously with the deposition of a series of marine beds to the west of- 

 the dividing range, during the Oolitic and part of the Cretaceous 

 period, a vast lacustrine deposit was to the eastward of the range, to 

 which the sea subsequently obtained access. 



Among the Palaeozoic deposits, the author distinguished Carbon- 

 iferous and Devonian rocks. The Carboniferous series was said to be 

 represented in northern Queensland by an extensive coal-field. The 



