36 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



Woodward to have an Upper Cambrian facies. In Victoria, 

 Professor McCoy has proved the existence, through the presence 

 of graptolites, of an old fauna analagous to that of Europe and 

 America, and comprised within the great division known to 

 Murchison as the Lower Silurian. To speak more precisely, these 

 fossils probably represent an horizon equivalent to the Llandielo. 

 The same authority has also demonstrated the presence in the 

 Southern Colony of rocks of Upper Silurian age, comprised within 

 the sub-division known as the Wenlock and Ludlow series. In 

 our own Country the Lower Silurian, as fossil-bearing rocks, are 

 apparently absent, although they may be probably represented by 

 others of a metamorphic character. On the other hand, the 

 Upper Silurian is widely represented in New South Wales, more 

 particularly in the neighbourhood of Yass, where there are 

 certainly representatives of the Wenlock, or perhaps other divisions 

 of that wonderful formation. In Western Australia and 

 Queensland, rocks of Silurian age have not yet been satisfactorily 

 proved, although it is possible that the gold-bearing series of 

 North-West Australia and the Northern Territory may be of this 

 period. Now, these detached " horizons " exemplify how much 

 remains to be accomplished in proving the existence, or otherwise, 

 of the intermediate groups, and the absolute relation borne by 

 them to similar deposits in other parts of the World. 



The Devonian strata of this Continent are even less known 

 than the Silurian. McCoy seems to have satisfactorily established 

 the existence of a Devonian fauna and flora in Gippsland. 

 DeKoninck has to some extent shown the same for New South 

 Wales, through the collections of the late Rev. W. B. Clarke. 

 So far as published data go, Queensland possesses by far the best 

 marked Devonian fauna. Through the surveys of my lamented 

 friend, the late Richard Daintree, C.M.G., and more recently 

 those of Mr. R. L. Jack, the limestones of Burdekin Downs have 

 been well explored, and found to contain a very copious fauna 

 probably representing the Middle Devonian of Europe and North 

 America. The relation of these far widely separated centres of 



