256 RALPH TATE OX HBW SPECIES OF BELEttXITES 



17. On Xew Species of Bele:uxttes and Salexia from tlie Middle 

 Tertiaeies of South Australia. By Balph Tate, Esq., F.G.S., 

 Assoc. Linn. Soc, Professor of Xatural Science in the Univer- 

 sity of Adelaide. (Bead February 7, 1877.) 



Coxtrary to my determination not to publish, any facts connected 

 with the Middle Tertiaries of South Australia until I could present 

 a detailed account of them, and of their palagontological characters, 

 I herein communicate to the Geological Society the discovery of the 

 presence of two genera in these rocks, which, on account of their 

 distribution in time in European strata, must be regarded as of 

 especial interest. 



A species of Belemnite (Belemnites rugifer) has been recorded 

 from the Older Tertiaries of Bonca, in Xorthern Italy ; but the 

 occurrence of the genus in the South- Australian Tertiaries greatly 

 extends its duration, inasmuch as the epoch of the deposition of the 

 Biver-Murray beds is generally regarded as not older than Miocene, 

 and by some is placed in the Pliocene period. I refrain from offering 

 an opinion on this question, as hitherto the corals and echinoderms 

 only have been critically examined. At this time I am engaged in 

 comparing the fossils of the South- Australian Tertiaries with existing 

 forms, particularly those inhabiting the South-Australian shores. 

 This task is rendered great from the circumstance that there is no 

 available collection in this colony for study, and I have been obliged 

 to supply the deficiency by my own labour. But this has borne good 

 results, as I have added 78 unrecorded marine shells to Mr. Angas's 

 list (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867), some of which occur in the Middle Ter- 

 tiary beds, and I have made several important additions in other 

 departments of marine zoology. 



The discover}' of a Tertiary Salenia very happily bridges over the 

 hiatus that separates in time the newly discovered living example 

 obtained by Sir ^Yyville Thomson during the cruise of the ' Chal- 

 lenger ' (' Academy,' June 3). Though much good work has been done 

 by Professor Duncan and Dr. Laube in making known the Echino- 

 derm-fauna of our Tertiaries, yet the number of species recorded by 

 them does not represent a moiety of those which I have met with. 

 The additional genera represented are Fibularia. Laganum, Brissus, 

 Cardmster, Cidaris. EchinarttJius, Hemiaster, Piigorliynchm, Echino- 

 brissus, GJyptocriivis, Meoma, AracJinoides, Astrogonium, Pentaerinus, 

 and Comaster. 



The locality at which the new species herein described have been 

 collected is Aldinga, 26 miles south from Adelaide, on the east coast 

 of St. Vincent's Gulf. The general assemblage of fossils in the very 

 diversified strata displayed in the long stretch of sea-cliffs about 

 150 feet high at this place, is identical with that of the Biver- 

 Murray beds. 



