34 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



Noumea. The beds included in this group are in close connec- 

 tion with a so-called greywackc, holding abundance of rolled 

 Brachiopods. Similar rolled BracJuopods are known in New 

 South Wales. Fischer believes these beds with Spiriftr, Lrpfoena, 

 Mec/antheris, and OrtJ/U; to belong to the Devonian, whilst 

 Munier-Chalmas considers the rolled shells to have the form of 

 Orthisina anomala of the Middle or Upper Silurian of Russia, 

 and therefore would place them in that formation. Limestones 

 and breccias, sometimes of great proportions, almost exclusively 

 compose it ; and Grarnier mentions that near the Bay of St. 

 Vincent the conglomerate contains portions of the limestone. The 

 strike of these rocks is parallel to the great eruptive magnesian 

 chain, which is N.N.W. The limestones are confined to the 

 islands, Charron, Nie, Brun, Ngou, the peninsula of Noumea, 

 and part of that of Paita. Eelspathic schists form the western 

 coast-line, and after them the breccias occur further north and 

 extend to Kanala. The surfaces of these rocks are extremely 

 waterworn, and have been greatly denuded. 



Above these formations come in the Triassic rocks, which have 

 been much disturbed, elevated, and altered by Porphyry 

 associated with the Devonian and with the schists before-men- 

 tioned. This Porphyry extends from Mont d'Or to the north of 

 the island and may be traced with the effects of its intrusion in 

 the centre of it. The transmutation that has resulted is in 

 places very striking. The Porphyry is compact and of a dirty 

 white tint,'which becomes bluish from exposure ; the schists are fre- 

 quently charged with pyrites and form in nodular masses which 

 have the aspect of Porphyry at the nucleus, and pass into that 

 rock at the planes of junction, when, occasionally, they become, by 

 the presence of angular portions, fine breccia. Now, this is pre- 

 cisely what occurs in New South Wales, on the Peel River, and 

 other places where the igneous intrusions have affected the shells 

 and limestones of the lower Carboniferous formation. The 

 Triassic beds contain several undoubted fossils, viz., Monotis 

 Michnondiana, Turbo Jouanni, Spirigera Caledonica, Spirifer sp., 

 Astarte sp., Halobia Lommeli, and a shell, probably a Mt/oconcJia, 



