186 G.] CLARKE AUSTEALIAN SECONDARY DEPOSITS. 7 



2. Additional Notes on the Grouping of the Eocks of IS'orth Deyon 

 and West Somerset. By J. Beete Jukes, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., 



F.G.S. 



NoYEilBER 21, 1866. 



The following communications were read :— 



1. On Marine Fossiliferous Secondary Formations in Attstralia. 

 By the Eev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.G.S. 



In Australia, untU the year 1860, no deposits of Secondary age had 

 been demonstrated, although Sir T. L. Mitchell, in 1846, during 

 his exploration of tropical Australia, had collected Belemnites and 

 a few other fossils, which are now known to belong to a Lower 

 Secondary formation, such as occurs on the Maranoa Biver, in 

 Queensland. 



During my own explorations in 1851-3, I had received a portion 

 of an Ammonite found in the Clarence River District, in IN'ew South 

 Wales ; and in 1859, Mr. Selwyn* obtained two supposed Cretaceous 

 fossils from the drift-gravel in Victoria. 



But these were all the data that had been accumulated in Eastern 

 Austraha up to 1861, when my paper " On the position of certain 

 plants in the Coal-bearing beds of Australia " was read before the 

 Geological Society f. But of Oohtic fossUs no species had been 

 found in New South Wales in 1860, nor to my knowledge in any part 

 of Australia, as stated in my book on the Gold-fields ; for I was then 

 unaware even that Mr. Gregory had discovered any Secondary fossils 

 in Western Austraha, which fact I first became acquainted with in 

 an editorial note appended to the paper cited. In Mr. Gregory's 

 paper J, afterwards published, he mentions Cretaceous, but not 

 Jurassic fossils. 



Shortly after this, my friend Mr. W. P. Gordon, who then lived 

 at Wollumbilla, north of the Condamine Eiver, was requested by me 

 to examine his neighbourhood, and to send me any fossils he might 

 discover, as I was led to suspect that if Secondary rocks existed 

 anywhere in that region, he would be within reach of them. In a 

 few months I received the collection which is mentioned in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society §, under the title of 

 " The Occurrence of Mesozoic and Permian Faunae in Eastern 

 Australia." 



In that paper the fossils were mentioned as having been intended 

 for the International Exhibition at London in 1862. An accident 

 prevented their despatch in time for the Exhibition ; but they have 

 since been placed in the hands of Mr. C. Moore, of Bath, F.G.S., for 

 description. 



* Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 148. 



t Ibid, vol xvii. pp. 359-362. I Ibid. p. 480. 



§ Ibid. vol. xviii. p. 244. 



