﻿360 



PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 20, 



Thus far, it may be said the evidence went up to a certain period. 

 But no place has been found for the plants whose verification was 

 doubted. Where do they belong in Prof. McCoy's gap between the 

 Oolite and the " Lower Carboniferous" ? 



It might be said truly they are " Upper Carboniferous." But in 

 1859 a discovery was made at Stone Creek near Maitland, which 

 again complicates the question. Mr. Bourne Russell made two pits 

 at the place mentioned, and passed through four or five workable 

 seams, the beds between which and on the top, consisting of coarse 

 grits and conglomerates full of Pachydomi, Spiriferi, Orthoceratites, 

 large Conularice, Asteridce, &c, prove that these coal-seams are not 

 in beds supposed to be Oolitic, but in McCoy's Lower Carbonife- 

 rous. And to complicate still further the whole, below the coal- 

 seams a bed of shale was reached in which are impressions of 

 Noeggerathia (or ZeugophyWtes), Qlossopteris (or Sagenojpteris), and 

 other plants, such as Gyclopteris, that look as much like Jurassic as 

 any that are so called. 



Mr. Russell, at my request, placed at my disposal the whole series 

 of excellent specimens, with memoranda of depth, &c. The locality 

 is known to me, and I collected Pachydomi, <fec, abundantly from 

 the vicinity ; so that these seams and Plants unquestionably occur 

 in the midst of beds considered to be Lower Carboniferous. 



I do not pretend to explain this anomaly, if it be one : but it is 

 deserving of notice that the supposed Lepidodendra, &c, do not 

 occur in the same beds with the Glossopteris, &c, described by Mr. 

 McCoy, but they occur apparently in similar relation to the animal 

 remains in other parts of the country. And they may, for any- 

 thing known to the contrary, occupy a corresponding position in re- 

 lation to the lower members of the " Lower Carboniferous" rocks as 

 the supposed " Jurassic" plants do to the upper members of that 

 formation. The whole affair is mysterious, and leads to an opinion 

 that the hitherto received conclusion must be modified. 



Within the last few years the search for coal has been greatly on 

 the increase in New South Wales ; and various deep shafts have been 

 sunk between the back of the cliffs at Newcastle and the junction of 

 the Hunter and Williams Rivers, near which at Muree (Raymond 

 Terrace) many of the animal remains described by McCoy, Dana, 

 and Morris were found. Some of these shafts show an uninter- 

 rupted series of coal-measures to a depth of 400 feet, without 

 reaching the floor of the basin. Coupled with the facts already 

 enumerated and divers others, such as the occurrence of coal and 



By Dana : — ■ 

 Coniferre. 



Noeggerathia spatulata. 



media. 



— — elongate* Morris. 

 Sphenopteris lobifolia, Morris. 

 Glossopteris Browniana, Brongn. 



ampla. 



Reticulum. 



elongata. 



Glossopteris (?) cordata. 



linearis, McCoy. 



Phyllotheca australis, Brongn. 

 Clasteria australis. 

 Anartlirocanna australis. 

 Cjstoseirites (?). 

 Austrella rigid a. 

 Confervites (?) tenella. 



