74 
TIJE GEOLOGIST. 
working-seam, with 2 ft. parting of sandstone, is reached at 97 ft. 10 in., 
to which add 9 ft. difference of level = 106 ft. 10 in. ; and in " 200 ft." 
shaft bottom of same seam, with 5 ft. parting of sandstone, is reached at 
187 ft. 1 in., which gives a difference of 80 ft. 3 in. in 280 ft., or relation 
of base to perpendicular 1:3"48. It will be seen from these figures that a 
higher dip prevails between " working " and " ladder " than between 
" working" and " 200 ft." shafts, and also that the strata intervening be- 
tween "5 ft. 7 in." and " working " seams vary in thickness, and that we 
cannot deal as with straight lines in the calculation of the general dip. I 
have therefore taken the mean between the dip of the " 5 ft. 7 in." and 
" working " seam, between " working " and " 200 ft." shafts, as the nearest 
approximation for calculating the outcrop of the different strata. This is 
81 ft. 9 in. in 280 ft. The relation of perpendicular to base 1 : 3-425 = 16° 
nearly. This places the outcrop of the lowest stratum (Clarke's No. 25) 
at a point 993 ft. S. 6° W. from the top of Eussell's " 200 ft." shaft, sup- 
posing the surface of the ground at the same level. Outcrop of top of 
bottom seam, 794 ft. ; ditto, working seam, 611 ft, ; ditto, splint seam, 573 
ft. ; ditto, 5 ft. 7 in., 524 ft. And these are the positions assigned for the 
various outcrops in the accompanying plan and section. When the de- 
tails of these shafts were first made known by Mr. Clarke as a proof of the 
PaljBozoic age of the coal, Spirifera Fenestella, etc., being found in 
abundance above, and Glossopteris associated with and below the coal, it 
was suggested by Professor M'Coy, that the data given by Mr. Clarke 
showed the existence of a fault between "working " and " 200 ft." shaft, 
and that possibly to this fault the reversion of beds might be due, but the 
Palaeozoic character of the fauna was not called in question. This error 
arose from taking the absolute distance between the shafts (360 ft.) 
instead of the reduced distance to the line of dip of 280 ft. Preferring 
to the extension of E-ussell's coal-seams to the northern railway, un- 
fortunately at a point where no marked bed of Eussell's series can be 
absolutely identified, we have an apparently unbroken series of strata 
dipping in the same direction, and at about the same angle, as those 
in Eussell's coal-pits, extending from a point at 19 miles 72 chains 
from Honeysuckle Flat to 21 miles 37 chains from the same place, the 
beds furthest to the eastward dipping at a greater angle. This affords a 
thickness (taking the angle of dip at 16°) of 2365 ft. of strata, abounding 
in fossil fauna from bottom to top, very low down in which coal-seams with 
Glossopteris occur. Fossils from each of the cuttings on the railway and 
from Eussell's shafts were procured, that palaeontologists may satisfy them- 
selves of their European parallel. If it be admitted that the fauna found 
in the upper strata of these shafts is Palaeozoic, then these coal-seams, at 
least, are Palaeozoic, and Glossopteris has a much lower range than has 
hitherto been assigned it, except by Mr. Clarke. Neither does there seem 
any reason why Mr. Clarke should not place the Newcastle coal-seams 
(his No. 3 Carboniferous group) in the upper portion of this Stony Creek 
group, no known unconformity existing, since no fauna or flora typical of 
the Mesozoic period has, I believe, yet been found in the said No. 3. This 
brings me to the consideration of Mr. Clarke's present arrangement of the 
Carboniferous series of New South Wales. First. " Wianamatta beds " 
with insignificant coal-seams, the upper beds of which are the probable 
equivalents of our Otway, Bellerine, and Wannon beds, in which Glosso- 
pteris has not yet been found. Second. " Hawkesbury beds," with insig- 
nificant coal-seams, and no Glossopteris. To this series Mr. Clarke refers 
the Grampian sandstones of Victoria, though Mr. Selwyn places them 
with No. 4. (By Grampian sandstones I mean the beds constituting the 
