1872,] ETHEHrOGE QTTEENSLAND FOSSILS. 323 



It would seem, then, that Mr. Moore has clearly determined the 

 presence of a Middle and Upper Lias fauna; i. e. the Australian 

 Lower Secondary rocks contain fossils almost identical in facies with 

 those of the Lias of Europe and N. E. India, or which, homotaxially, 

 may be of, or represent, the same age. 



It is, however, to be regretted that his specimens were not 

 obtained in situ, instead of from drifted materials ; for nothing is 

 known of the beds or sections from which the WoUumbilla fossils 

 originally came. It is not a little singular, however, that Mr. 

 Moore recognized twenty species as common to England and 

 Western Australia*. Amongst the Cephalopoda are five species 

 of Ammonites, one ISTautilus, and one Belemnite, chiefly from the 

 Upper Lias and Lower Oolite ; the remaining thirteen species of 

 Lamellibranchiata, with two exceptions, are also of Lower Oolitic 

 age. Mr. Moore believes that many others common to the two 

 countries occur ; but their worn and eroded state prevented reliable 

 identification. 



QXTEENSLAMK. 



I have now to add some new facts relative to the distribution of 

 life through the North Queensland rocks, from which Mr. Daintree 

 has obtained a more general series of Plantse, Mollusca, and 

 Ccelenterata, mostly new, and ranging from the Silurian to the 

 Tertiary deposits — the Devonian, Carboniferous, and Cretaceous 

 being well represented. 



Mr. Daintree's specimens were mostly obtained in situ — but 

 nevertheless nearly all occur in the form of casts, arising doubtless 

 from the solvent action of water by percolation and oxidation, as 

 they are not abraded or water-worn ; nor, from their condition, 

 could they have been much exposed to the atmosphere. 



It is therefore to be regretted that so few of our specimens 

 possess the outer shell, so essential to the true diagnosis and differ- 

 entiation of species. It is, however, felt .that if all the Australian 

 fossils are to be rejected, or no attempt made to determine them, 

 little or no stimulus will be given to the exploration of those vast 

 and widely spread fossiliferous regions and rock-masses which 

 occupy so extensive an area in Queensland and other parts of 

 Australia. 



To figure them also without some individual description and 

 indications of afiinities with weU-known forms would tend to mislead. 

 I have therefore been bold enough to do both, viz. give the best 

 figure possible and the clearest description I could with the materials 

 composing the collection at my command. Doubtless the time will 

 come when better and more perfect specimens will be found ; the 

 task of identification will then be much easier than that which, at 

 the request of Mr. Daintree, I have undertaken. 



The succession of the Australian rocks in time, as proved and 

 established by stratigraphical position, sequence, or succession, is 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xivi, p. 231. 



