322 PROCEBDTNGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 24, 



shire*, sent from Western Australia by a Mr. Clifton, probably from 

 Mr. Gregory's Moresby-range series. Mr. Moore determined between 

 fifty and sixty species from the collection, and placed them upon the 

 horizon of the Lias and Lower Oolite of Britain. 



Subsequently, in 1863 and 1864, the Rev. W. B. Clarke received 

 other fossils from a locality 15° N. of Champion Bay, probably from 

 near the Moresby Kange ; the Palseontological facies of these was 

 strikingly representative of early Secondary, Oolitic, or Liassic age, 

 as determined by such forms as Ostrea Marshii, Ammonites Moorei, 

 Avicula Miinsteri, Belemnites canaliculatus, &c. It would thus 

 appear, then, that the Moresby range was a highly typical locality 

 for the Jurassic deposits of Western Australia. 



These disjointed notices, from good and reliable observers, are so 

 many facts tending to show how widely the Lower Secondary rocks 

 must have spread over the Australian continent, and also what 

 extreme denudation they must have suffered during, perhaps, com- 

 paratively modern times. Mr. Moore's paper descriptive of the 

 series from Moresby Range has been the means of drawing much 

 attention to the distribution of life through these remarkable rocks, 

 so slightly exposed vertically, over the great plains of Australia. 



Mr. Moore, in 1869, in his important paper (published in ISTOf) 

 upon " Australian Mesozoic Geology and Palaeontology," did great 

 service in pioneering by venturing to describe and correlate the 

 Secondary fossils sent to him for determination ; he attributes to 

 Mr. Clifton the credit of having had in his possession the earliest 

 evidence of the presence of Mesozoic fossils on the Australian conti- 

 nent. That part of Mr. Moore's paper devoted to the Queensland 

 Mesozoic fossils, he. cit. pp. 232-259, is highly important to the 

 question of distribution of the Secondary fossils through the colony ; 

 and the list of organic remains at pp. 239-40 shadows forth what 

 we may expect when the rocks are thoroughly searched. He has 

 added more to our definite knowledge of the Secondary organic forms 

 of Australia than any other writer. 



The only other addition of importance to our knowledge of the 

 Secondary fauna of Australia, prior to Mr. Moore's paper, was 

 Prof. M'Coy's notice and description of a portion of an Ichthyo- 

 saurus (I. australis), supposed by him to be from the Lower Lias, 

 although this was not clearly ascertained. Prof. M'Coy also, in 1866 

 (Trans. Royal Soc. of Victoria, vol. vii. pp. 49-51, 1866), in an 

 abstract of a paper " On the Discovery of Cretaceous Fossils in 

 Australia," mentions receiving from the western bank of the Plinders 

 river, at the base of Walker's Table Mountains, lat. 21° 13', long. 

 143°, through Messrs. Sutherland and Carson, a small collection of 

 geological specimens ; " this enabled Prof. M'Coy to announce for the 

 first time, with certainty, the existence of the Cretaceous formations 

 in Australia," 



* Sent to Mr. Sanford, probably from Sparks Bay or Champion Bay. (Wor- 

 cestershire in Mr. Clark's paper.) 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. pp. 226-259, accompanied by nine 

 plates. 



