CARBONIFEROUS AND PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS, N.8.W. 277 



the Kuttung Series would become the Middle Carboniferous 

 Series, and the transferred beds Upper Carboniferous. 



Summary of the Carboniferous Period, — The Lower 

 Carboniferous. — The beginning of the Carboniferous Period 

 in New South Wales found the greater part of the State 

 dry land; the exception being a relatively long and narrow 

 belt of epicontinental sea which extended along the southern 

 and western margins of that part of New South Wales now 

 called the New England Tableland. The history of the 

 change from the Devonian Period to the Carboniferous 

 Period will not be dealt with here, as no contacts between 

 these two formations occur in this district, but will be 

 described in a later paper dealing with the Devonian and 

 Carboniferous formations of the Gloucester District. The 

 accompanying map (Plate XVIII), showing the area now 

 occupied by Carboniferous strata, will give some idea of the 

 position and size of the Lower Carboniferous sea, and it will 

 be seen that it completely separated the north-eastern part 

 of New South Wales from the remaining part of the State. 

 This Carboniferous sea extended northwards from New 

 South Wales into Queensland, and similarly cut off the 

 south-eastern part of that State from the remainder. 



These portions of New South Wales and Queensland cut 

 off from the remaining parts of Australia during the Car- 

 boniferous Period, were parts of a separate land area which 

 existed to the east of the Australian continent at least as 

 far back as the beginning of the Devonian Period, and 

 probably as far back as the beginning of the Palaeozoic Era. 

 It is desirable that this land area should have a definite 

 name, and that of Tasmantis is proposed. This land 

 became permanently united to the mainland of Australia 

 towards the close of the Permo-Carboniferous Period. How 

 far to the east of the present shoreline it extended is not 

 known, but the size and positions of the Mesozoic lakes of 



