COLONIAL GKEOLOGT — NEW SOUTH WALES. 



75 



sierra.) Third. " Carboniferous beds," containing the workable coal- 

 seams, with Glossopteris by far the most abundant fossil. In the lower 

 portion of this series, four known coal-seams are interpolated with strata 

 containing a fauna similar in character to that found in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone of Europe. Fourth. " Lepidodendron beds," not associated 

 with coal-seams as far as yet known. If this arrangement is correct, and 

 my experience as a field geologist is entirely in its favour, it is of great 

 practical value to us in Victoria in the search for workable coal-seams, and 

 should cause us to direct our attention to the upper beds of the Avon se- 

 ries, Gipps Land, where No. 4 is so well developed, and also to Cape Lip- 

 trap, where Carboniferous Limestone is supposed to crop out, in the hope 

 of finding the Glossopteris beds. It points unfavourably towards the Te- 

 nseopteris and Zamites bearing beds, which we have hitherto regarded as 

 our coal-producers, but which, as yet, have yielded nothing better than 

 the Cape Paterson seams. 4000 feet also of these same beds have been 

 tested by boring in the Bellerine district and have yielded nothing ap- 

 proaching a workable seam. 



In the collection of fossils forwarded by Mr. Clarke to Professor M'Coy, 

 at Cambridge, specimens had been collected from the three upper divisions 

 of the Carboniferous series of New South Wales ; the subsequent division 

 of the group had not then been worked out by that indefatigable geolo- 

 gist, and it is in this way, I believe, the mistake has arisen between Mr. 

 Clarke and Professor M'Coy. Whether the fauna that overlies Russell's 

 coal-seams is most assimilated to the Palaeozoic or Lower Mesozoic forms 

 of Europe, is a question on which I am not competent to form an opinion. 

 When the question shall have been settled by palseontological authorities, 

 it seems to me that little will have been done for the physical geologist at 

 the antipodes, who must trust to the order of superposition, rather than to 

 the palaeontology, to work out the order of sequence, holding the opinion 

 of Professor Huxley, that "there is no escape from the admission, that 

 neither physical geology nor palaeontology possesses any method by which 

 the absolute synchronism of two strata can be demonstrated. That the 

 moment the geologist has to deal with large areas, or with completely se- 

 parated deposits, then the mischief of confounding homotaxis, or simi- 

 larity of arrangement which can be demonstrated, with synchrony or iden- 

 tity of date, for which there is not a shadow of proof, under the term of 

 contemporaneity, becomes incalculable, and proves the constant source of 

 gratuitous speculations." All the facts that we have to guide the field- 

 geologist in Victoria in his search for Clarke's No. 3 Carboniferous beds 

 (containing the workable seams of New South Wales) are these, — that 

 they are very low down in the Carboniferous series ; that the lowest beds 

 contain a fauna nearly allied to the Lower Carboniferous of Europe ; that 

 Glossopteris is associated with all the coal-seams, and is the most common 

 and characteristic fossil of the said No. 3. This peculiar fauna or flora 

 has not yet been observed in Victoria. Leaving now this most interesting 

 piece of country and coasting along to Moreton Bay, under the lighthouse 

 on Moreton Island we have sandstones, with a slight inclination, appa- 

 rently, of the Carboniferous series cropping from under the Tertiary (?) 

 sand of which the island is composed. If this is really Carboniferous 

 Sandstone, Moreton Island may shortly become more valuable than its 

 outward appearance would lead one to suppose. The rocks on which Bris- 

 bane stands may be referred to the Upper Silurian ; they have generally 

 a north-easterly dip at high angles, are traversed by numerous quartz 

 veins, and gold would surely be found, though perhaps not in workable 

 quantity, in the gullies around the city. If not covered by the Carboni- 



