192 R. D. Oldham— >Some Rough Notes for the [No. 3, 



of three species of Gangamopterisy or that of the Hawksbury period to 

 have been limited to two species of ferns. But, if not directly referable 

 to the same epoch by their contained fossils, there can be no doubt that 

 they are on the same horizon, for, in the uppermost beds of the Newcastle 

 series, two species of Gangamopteris are found, one identical with, and the 

 other allied to, species from the Bacchus Marsh sandstones of Victoria, 

 while the beds above the Hawksbury series in New South Wales can be 

 correlated with those which overlie the Bacchus Marsh beds in Victoria 

 by the occurrence of Fecopteris australis, Morr. and Tcenopteris daintreei, 

 McCoy in both. The presence of beds indicating glacial action in 

 both and the absence of similar beds in the associated strata further 

 prove their absolute contemporaneity ; and by an extension of the same 

 reasoning we may assign the Talchirs of India to the same glacial epoch. 

 The palseontological relations of the Gondwanas with the Karoo and 

 Uitenhage series of South Africa are much simpler than with the Austra- 

 lian formations. From the upper part of the Karoo beds, which uncon- 

 f ormably overlie strata containing an Upper Palaeozoic fauna, a limited flora 

 of but five species has been obtained. Of these five, one is Glossopteris hrow- 

 niana, another, Bictijopteris ? simplex, Tate, is, according to Dr. Feist- 

 mantel, allied to Glossopteris damudica, Fstm., and Buhidgea onacJcayi is, 

 on the same authority, probably a Gangamopteris ; in addition to these, Tate 

 gives a species of Phyllotheca, but the identification is doubted by Dr. 

 Feistmantel.* Associated with these, there is an abundant and peculiar 

 Reptilian fauna with Bicynodon as a dominant type, a genus not known 

 elsewhere, except from the Panchet subdivision of the Damuda in India. 

 In the overlying Uitenhage series, there is a flora consisting of eleven 

 determinable species ; of these one species of ferns is also found in the 

 Bajmahals, while two, and possibly three, species of ferns and one conifer 

 are closely allied to Rajmahal forms. f These Uitenhage plants are 

 associated with beds containing an Oolitic marine fauna. The palaeonto- 

 logy of these beds sufficiently indicates a parallelism with the Gond- 

 wanas, and, in confirmation of this, we find, at the base of the Karoo 

 series, an undisputably glacial boulder bed, J which we shall be justified 

 in assigning to the same epoch as those of the Talchirs in India and of 

 the Hawksbury and Bacchus Marsh beds in Australia. 



Viewing these circumstances, there can, I think, be no doubt that 

 these glacial boulder clays of Africa, India, and Australia represent one 

 and the same epoch in the history of the earth and are, as strictly as the 

 word can be applied, of contemporaneous, if not absolutely coeval, origin. 



* Q. J. G-. S., XXIII, 140, Paloiontographica, 1878, p. 114. 



t Q. J. G. S., XXIII, p. 140. 



X Q. J. G. S., XXVII, 58 and 535. 



