Wellington Philosophical Society. 533 
ABSTRACT. 
After describing the extent and position of the various coal-fields a& present worked, 
he stated that from a comparison of the fossils he had arrived at the following results :— 
Cretaceous epoch: Chief New Zealand coal; wanting in Tasmania and Australia, 
except, perhaps, in Queensland. 
Jurassic epoch: Mataura series of New Zealand; Cape Paterson coal-fields of Vic- 
toria; Clarence River coal of New South Wales, and the coal-beds at Hobarton. 
Liassie epoch: Clent Hill beds of New Zealand; wanting in Tasmania and Australia, 
except Queensland. 
Triassic epoch: Wairoa beds of New Zealand; upper coal formation of New South 
ales ; wanting in Tasmania. 
Permio-carboniferous: Kaihiku series of New Zealand; lower coal formation of New 
South Wales; Mersey coal-fields of Tasmania. 
This view of the relative ages of those formations had just received remarkable 
confirmation by a late discovery ; Mr. McKay, of the Geological Survey Department, who 
has recently been at work in the Canterbury Alps, having found plant-beds beneath the 
Spirifer beds of Mount Potts that are full of the leaves of the Glossopteris—a fern very 
characteristic of the upper and middle coal formations of New South Wales, and with 
them beds of graphite of considerable commercial value, which represents in an altered 
form the Newcastle coal-seams. Along with these occur remains of Saurian reptiles of 
immense size, of which large collections have been made. In conclusion, it was stated 
that only a very small portion of the area, coloured on the map of New South Wales as 
coal formation, contains valuable coal-seams, and that they were not without drawbacks. 
At Newcastle, where the principal collieries are situated, the seams have to be worked 
to an increasing depth by shafts, and require pumping. In the southern coal-field, the 
coal is worked by adits into the face of the mountain, and lowered by steep inclines in 
the same manner as our own Buller coal will be worked but it has to be shipped from 
an exposed coast. The western district coal has all to be carried over the Blue Moun- 
tains by a railway that ascends and descends by zigzags, that answer well enough for 
passengers and light traffic, but must be rather costly for transporting coal. Dr. Hector 
stated that all he had seen increased his confidence in the value of our West Coast 
coal-fields, both as regards the quality and extent of the coal and the facilities for 
working them. 
5. Dr. Hector described various recent additions to the Museum, which were ex- 
hibited: (1.) Ventral spines of a species of Banks’ oar-fish, Regalecus gladius, recently 
cast up on the Farewell Spit, and presented by Mr. H. L. Wilson. Unfortunately, the 
whole of this rare species had not been procured, but a full-sized drawing was shown. It 
is like the frost-fish, but thirteen feet long, and one foot deep, with a high crest over the 
head, and the ventral fins reduced to two long rays or spines, which are elongated above 
the body, and furnished with an oval expansion of membrane at the tip. The colours of 
the fish are very bright and metallic. (2.) A specimen of the sea-trout (Salmo trutta), 
caught with rod and artificial fly in the Tasmanian fish-ponds, was shown, and compared 
with specimens at all stages of growth of the same fish reared in New Zealand. The 
distinct manner in which the specific characters were preserved in them, and also in a 
number of brown trout also exhibited, is opposed to the theory advanced by some that 
the Tasmanian fish are being hybridized. 
Some other interesting fish were also exhibited, forming a small part of a large 
collection presented by Mr. William Macleay, F.L.S., of Sydney. 
