﻿1861.] CLARKE COAL-FORMATION 0~F AUSTRALIA. 361 



fossilized wood in the midst of the Muree fossils, — the existence of 

 coal in association with beds of fossils of Lower Carboniferous age on 

 the Page River, as at Coyeo and at the back of Mount "Wingen, 

 where the coal-beds (on fire) contain plants equivalent to those of 

 Hiih.ibim.ba, and appear to be lower than tfee Spirifer-bearing beds 

 on the ranges above them, — the occurrence of similar phenomena as 

 to the presence of the fossilized wood both in the Glossopteris-beds 

 of Mount Keera and in the Spirifer-beds of Black Head, and others 

 elsewhere — it does clearly appear that, in the present state of our 

 knowledge of the stratigraphical disposition in New South "Wales, it 

 is impossible, without a grave doubt, to admit that the whole of our 

 coal-measures, if any, are of Oolitic age. A more likely solution 

 of the difficulty would be the adoption of the conclusion that either 

 the plants are not necessarily " Oolitic," or, if some of them 

 are, there is a descending order of an epochal, as well as succes- 

 sional kind, which may fill up the gap assumed in theory, by suffi- 

 cient evidence to remove the difficulty there is to all in receiving it as 

 satisfactory. 



That the Carboniferous formation in Australia, whatever becomes 

 of the disputed beds, is of very great thickness, may be conceived 

 from the fact determined by me when I was in Tasmania last March, 

 that the " siliceous breccia " of Strzelecki* is a member of this 

 formation. Mr. Gould, the accomplished director of the Geological 

 Survey of Tasmania, will, it is to be hoped, very shortly furnish us 

 with certain data respecting some of the points discussed above. 



As much of the coal of the southern part of Tasmania is chiefly 

 anthracite, it would be interesting to show whether it is older than 

 the seams of Jerusalem, Richmond, Jericho, Eingal, the Mersey, <fcc, 

 and if any phytological evidence exists for connecting it with the age 

 of the Lepidodendra, &c, of New South Wales; whether all the 

 coal in Tasmania is younger than the whole of the " Carboniferous" 

 beds with animal remains ; whether the coal of the Mersey is con- 

 nected with the latter in the same way as the coal is at Stony Creek 

 near Maitland, or is rather related to the coal of the Tertiary deposits 

 near Launceston. 



If it is the case that in India genera of plants stereotyped as 

 " Jurassic " are found in varying species in other formations besides ; 

 if the identity asserted for such plants in distant countries, such as 

 India and Yorkshire, is disproved — if the Richmond plants are now 

 acknowledged to be older — if the reputed age of certain plants in 

 Africa is in the same category, — it may, perhaps, be yet proved that 

 the assumption of the " Oolitic" era for that of the Australian coal 

 is also too general a deduction conjointly from such facts as we have 

 and from the want of more, especially such as the want of good 

 unmistakeable deposits in which the animal remains will leave no 

 further room for doubt. Beyond two specimens found in the super- 

 ficial Tertiary gravel at Melbourn, no one has pretended to have 

 discovered in situ any shell or other animal remains of Oolitic age 



* PI. 5. fig. 2. 



