3 
tlio fossils occur are tliinly laminated, fine-grained, and ferruginous. When 
unwcatliered they are grey in colour, and when weathered light brown, 
which is due to the decomposition of the contained ferruginous material. 
. . . . . . The results of the weathering of these shales are somewhat 
peculiar. When fresh the rock appears to he quite compact, without any 
visible sign of jointing or lamination ; hut immediately the weathering action 
begins, it first picks out the vertical jointing, along which the ferruginous 
decomposition travels, and from there it passes along the laminae, and so 
gradually dilfuses itself throughout the rock After consider- 
able weathering it splits easily into square or rectangular layers, often very 
thin This discolouration which the rock undergoes does not 
materially affect the fossils, whieli are sometimes of a white colour.” The 
fish and plant remains are very plentiful, but those of insects equally rare. 
Of the age of this deposit Mr. Anderson says : — “ After a careful 
examination of the ground, I am inclined to think that what little strati- 
graphical evidence there is points to the conclusion that they form an 
isolated lenticular patch in the horizontally-bedded sandstones, similar to the 
lenticular beds of grey shale which occur in the Ilawkeshury Sandstone near 
the coast. If this he so, the fish, plant, and insect remains are of Ilawkes- 
bury or Triassic age, and, consequently, they belong to the same period as 
the large collection of fish which was obtained some time ago at Gosford,^ on 
the Northern Uailway, between Sydney and Newcastle.”! The fish are at 
present in the hands of Mr. A. S. Woodward, of the Natural History Museum, 
London, who recently wrote to one of the Authors that they were specifically 
distinct from those referred to by Mr. Anderson as found at Gosford. A 
preliminary examination of the plants has been made, with the following 
results. They “ are of the highest possible interest, as indicating an alliance 
of these rocks with those of the Clarence Series of New South Wales, the 
Ipswich Series of Queensland, and the Wannon and Bellarine beds of 
Victoria. The most conspicuous plant is a Tceniopteris, which Professor 
M‘Coy is unable to distinguish from his T. Daintreei, so characteristic of the 
Mesozoic deposits of Victoria.” J It is exceedingly probable, therefore, that, 
although of Lower Mesozoic age, the beds containing the Talbragar fossils 
will be found to be higher, stratigraphically, than the Gosford fish-hed. 
* The Fossil Fish of the Hawkeshury Series at G-osford. By A. S. Woodward, Mem. Geol. Survey, N. S. 
Wales (Pal. Series), No. 4, 1890. 
t Zoc. cii., p. 139. 
J Etheridge, Ann. Keport Dept. Mines, N. S. Wales for 1889 [1890], p. 287. 
