326 PBOCEEBINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETT. [April 24, 



origin is doubtful ; it was probably the latter, no marine organism 

 ever having been found in it : so vast an estuarine deposit would, 

 I must believe, under any change of level exhibit occasional fossils 

 of estuarine and brackish water or semimarine types. The close of 

 the Desert Sandstone is marked by a recurrence of Dolerite Trap 

 rocks, or " Upper Volcanic," similar in character to the Lower, or 

 those which underhe the Sandstone. 



The above condensed stratigraphieal sequence of the Queensland 

 formations may aid those who refer to the Palaeontological Appendix 

 only ; their pure geology is discussed at length by the Agent-General 

 for Queensland (Mr. Daintree) in his extended paper. 



I purposed constructing a distribution-table for the organic re- 

 mains of Queensland, West Australia, and Victoria &c., but, after 

 much research, determined for the present to abandon this until 

 more definite materials or data for time-range could be obtained. 

 Much has to be done in definitely placing together the palaeozoic 

 species ; and as more materials are about to arrive in England, it is 

 better to defer this attempt for the present. 



Mr. Daintree has placed the whole collection at my disposal, and 

 allowed me to select those specimens most typical or sufficiently 

 characteristic and well marked to enable me to draw up some defi- 

 nite characters, and refer them to known forms where possible. The 

 Plantse receive the same attention, through Mr. Carruthers, F.E..S. ; 

 and it is hoped that the collection * made by Mr. Daintree and 

 others, and now figured, will be instrumental in leading to further 

 extended research through the sedimentary rocks of Australia 

 generally. 



Paleozoic. 

 Devonian. 



Avictjlopectbn ? LOLsiEOEMis, Morris, sp. PI. XIV. fig. 1. 



Ref. Strzeleeki's Phys. Descr. of New South "Wales and Van 

 Diemen's Land, 1845, t. 13. fig. 1. 



I refer this shell to the Pecten (Aviculopecten) limfeformis, Morris, 

 described and figured by him in Strzeleeki's ' New South Wales and 

 Van Diemen's Land,' p. 277, t. 13. fig. 1. 



Of this fine shell we have only a mould of about one half of the 

 right valve ; it is nevertheless sufficient to allow me to refer 



* The ship (' Queen of the Thames ') which conveyed both Mr. Daintree and 

 his large collection of minerals and fossils from Melbourne, was wrecked off the 

 east coast of Africa, near the village of Bredarsdorp; and, as may be sup- 

 posed, neither minerals nor fossils were much improved by their lonff submergence 

 prior to recovery. The labour and anxiety of many years' research to establish 

 the age and nature of the stratified rocks of Queensland was then nearly lost ; 

 and but for the fortunate position of the ship near the shore, fresh collections 

 must have been made to elucidate the physical character and structure of the 

 Colony. The importance and value of such research as that carried out by Mr. 

 Daintree is detailed in his elaborate paper on the General Geology of Queens- 

 land 



