474 Geological Society : — 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 'Continued from p. 233/ 

 April 24, 1872.— Prof. Eamsay, F.R.S., V.P.. in tlie Cliair. 

 The following commnnications were read : — 



1. ••'An Extract from a Despatch, from. H. ^L. ^nister in Tehe- 

 ran." Commnnicated by the Et. Hon. the Earl Granville, Secretary 

 of State for Poreign Affairs. 



This letter described the effects of some severe earthquake shocks 

 experienced at Khabooshan in Xorth-Vestem Khorassan. On the 

 23rd December. 1571, an earthquake occurred which destroyed half 

 the town of Khabooshan, and buried about 2000 of its inhabitants 

 in the ruins. On the 6th .January, 1572, another severe shock de- 

 stroyed the remainder of the town, and killed about 4000 people. 

 Pour forts near the town were so completely buried that not a trace 

 of them can be seen. It was estimated that 30.U00 lives were lost 

 in Khabooshan, Eojnoord, and the surrounding villages by the effects 

 of these earthquakes. 



2. •'•' Xotes on the Geologv of the Colonv of Queensland."' By 

 E. Daintree, Esq.. P.G-.S. 



The author stated that ALirviAL deposits are very scanty in 

 Queensland, except on the northern shores of Caq^entaria and near 

 the mouths of the larger rivers. The fossil remains of extinct 

 Mammaha {Biprotodon, Macrojras, ThylacoJeo, XototTierium, <S:c.) 

 are found in old brecciated alluvia, representing beds of old water- 

 courses, through which modern creeks have cut their channels, 

 ^ith these mammalia are found shells of existing species. 



Of Cajxozoic deposits the most important is called the ''Desert 

 Sandstone " by the author ; it consists of horizontal beds of coarse 

 grit and cod glomerate, nowhere exceeding 400 feet in thickness, 

 forming a sandy barren soil by their disintegration. The only fossils 

 found in it are rolled fi^agments of coniferous wood : and its strati- 

 graphical position is determined solely by its resting unconformably 

 upon beds containing apparently Cretaceous fossils. The author 

 considered that this deposit formerly covered nearly the whole of 

 Australia. 



Beds containing ]y^Esozoic forms of fossils, and referred by the 

 author to the Cretaceous series, occur upon the Upper Phnders. 

 At Marathon these deposits consist of a fine-grained yellow sand- 

 stone, and below this a series of sandstones and argillaceous lime- 

 stones, containing four species of Inoceramus, with a species of 

 Ichthyosauru.s and two of PJe^slosavTus. At Hughenden station, near 

 Mount Walker, there is a series of calcareo-argillaceous beds, probably 

 inferior to those of Marathon, and containing two species of Ammo- 

 nites, with Avicida gryphrpoides, a Pecten, &c. At Hughenden 

 cattle-station, twenty miles further up the river, numerous Belem- 

 nites are found loose upon the surface. These Mesozoic rocks also 

 extend down the Thompson Eiver and its tributaries. The author 

 referred to the fossils described by Mr. Charles Moore as probably 

 Oolitic, and stated that it is more than probable that OoLiric aSd 



