U2 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Tasmania, Mr. Gould has also made the important discovery of a resinous 

 shale, termed Dysodile, and which, like the Torbane mineral of Scotland, pro- 

 mises to be turned to great account in the production of paraffine. 



There are, indeed, other grounds for believing that coal, both of the meso- 

 zoic as well of the old carboniferous age, may exist in Australia. Thus putting 

 aside the fossil evidences collected in Victoria by M'Coy and Selwyn, we learn 

 from the researches of Mr. Frank Gregory iu Western Australia, that mesozoic 

 fossils (probably cretaceous and oolitic) occur in that region ; whilst the Rev. 

 W. B. Clarke informs me iu a letter just received, that he is in possession of a 

 group of fossils transmitted from Queensland, 700 or 800 miles north of 

 Sydney, which he is disposed to refer to the age of the Chalk ; there being 

 among the fossils Belemnites, Pentacrinites, Pectens, Mytili, Modiola, &c. 

 Again, the same persevering geologist has procured from New Zealand the re- 

 mains of a fossil Saurian, which, he thinks, is allied to the Plesiosaurus * 



It would therefore appear that in the southern hemisphere there is not 

 merely a close analogy between the rocks of palaeozoic age and our own, but 

 further, that, as far as the Mesozoic formations have been developed, they also 

 seem to be the equivalents of our typical secondary deposits. 



This existence of groups of animals during the Silurian, Devonian, Carboni- 

 ferous, and even in Mesozoic periods in Australia and New Zealand, similar to 

 those which characterize these formations in Europe, is strongly in contrast 

 with the state of nature which began to prevail there in the younger Tertiary 

 period. We know from the writings of Owen that at that time the great con- 

 tinent at our Antipodes was already characterized by the presence of those 

 marsupial forms which still distinguish its fauna from that of any other part of 

 the world. 



In relation to our Australian colonies, I must also announce that I have re- 

 cently been gratified in receiving from Messrs. Chambers and Pinke, of Ade- 

 laide, a collection of the specimens collected by McDouall Stuart, in his cele- 

 brated traverse (the first one ever made) from South Australia to the watershed 

 of North Australia. Having had occasion to address the Royal Geographical 

 Society on this point, and to award its gold medal to that most adventurous 

 and successful explorer, with observations on the main geographical results of 

 his labours, including the discovery of trees and plants unknown in other parts 

 of that continent, I may here say, in addressing myself to geologists, that a col- 

 lection of rocks has been submitted to me which may tend to illustrate the 

 structure of the interior of that great continent. 



These specimens are soft white chalky rocks, with flints, agates, saline, and 

 ferruginous incrustations, tufas, breccias, and white quartz rocks, and a few 

 specimens of quasi-volcanic rock, but with scarce a fragment that can be referred 

 to the older stages of Lower Silurian age like those of Yictoria.f Again, the 

 only fossil shells collected by Mr. Stuart (though the precise latitude and longi- 

 tude is unknown to me), are Mytiloid and Mya-like forms, seemingly indicating 

 a Tertiary age, and thus we may be disposed provisionally to infer that large 

 tracts of the low interior between East and West Australia have in very recent 

 geological periods been occupied by the sea. 



Conclusion. — In concluding this address, I may assure the section that, as one 

 of the original members of the Association, it gives me infinite satisfaction to 

 return to my old friends in this great and thriving centre of our national in- 

 dustry. In common with many of my associates who come from a distance, 

 well do I remember how cordially we were received here in the year 1842 ; 



* In another part of this Number we give the paper of Professor Owen, describing 

 this interesting fossil as Plesiosaurus Australis. 



f It must, however, be noted that the collection sent to me consists of small 

 specimens of rock forming an imperfect series. 



