Brenson.—Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Seas in Australasia. 13 
Tug POSSIBILITY оғ DETAILED STRATIGRAPHICAL CORRELATION OF 
AUSTRALASIAN GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 
Before discussing the history of the various geological epochs in Austral- 
asia it seems well briefly to consider how far this is or may be determined 
in detail, for opinion has varied on this point among workers on Australasian 
fossils, McCoy (1866) believed in “ the fact of the specific identity of the 
marine fauna of the whole world during the most ancient Palaeozoic 
periods." De Koninck (1877), while recognizing endemic Australian species, 
supported McCoy by referring also many Australian forms to European 
species of Silurian, Devonian, or Carboniferous age. The validity of these 
identifications is, however, often open to grave doubt, and Etheridge (1891 ) 
advised that no Australian fossils be referred to European species unless on 
the clearest possible evidence, and that, moreover, great caution should be 
Tate (1901), while arguing against homotaxy, inclined to the extreme view 
continents had originally the same primitive 
eat European periods, but it is not always so. Terms such as ' Permo- 
Carboniferous ' and * Trias-Jura ' express a mingling of faunas representing 
Downs beds, the wide range (Carboniferous to Triassic, fide Woodward, 
1908) of affinities of the fossil fish in the probably late Triassic shales near 
Sydney, &c.—reaching the conclusion that “in this region the European 
standard of palaeontology cannot be followed." 
"But, while we must not be unmindful of the difficulties, it may be 
questioned whether the emphasis placed on them has not unduly discouraged 
