33 
These newer beds which occupy the whole of the country 
traversed by the ill-fated Calvert expedition, which extend as far 
north as the Fitzroy River Valley. Fossiliferous Mesozoic rocks 
have Ijeen met with in this area at a depth of about 1.400 feet in 
one of the bores put down in the search for artesian water at Derby. 
There is, therefore, no positive evidence as to the age of the Nul- 
lagines beyond the Pre-Cambrian or Archaean below, and the 
Mesozoic above, the latter limit being determined by the Belemnites 
in the bore-hole referred to. 
Geologists are unfortunately, somewhat prone to refer every 
stratigraphical or lithological unit to European or other standards, 
and to give names to the beds of which they are supposed to be the 
equivalent. I am afraid that any attenii)t at present to harmonise 
the time-tables, will only end in confusion, and tend rather to hinder 
than to advance knowledge. 
In its lithological characters, its structural relationships, and 
its igneous phenomena, the Nullagine Formation bears a very 
marked resemblance to the beds in South Africa known as the 
Potchefstroom or Transvaal System, of the age of which all that 
it is possible to say that it is Pre-Devonian. The Nullagine beds 
also bear a very close relationship to the Bijawar or Cuddapah 
Series of Peninsular India, which constitute a part of the Purana 
Group, which is assumed to be the equivalent of the Algonkian as 
the term was originally understood in American stratigraphical 
nomenclature. 
The seat of all the Western Australian mineral wealth lies in 
the rocks more or less directly associated with the beds of the 
Nullagine Formation, and one at any rate of the unsolved problems 
which presents itself, is. the ore deposition associate{l with 
Pre-Nullagine time, or is it more recent than the mountain building 
era, during which the schistose structure was developed? 
In the multiplicity of the problems, the master one is that just 
propounded, and the solution of it involves pretty well all others, 
a condition which almost instinctively brings to mind the words in 
the Talmud; — 
'‘The day is short, and the zvork is great, it is not inc'umbent 
upon thee to complete the zvork, hnt thoit must not therefore cease 
from itT 
We are glad to see, that despite all the difficulties, geological 
science, which is perhaps one of the very best of grounds for 
training the faculty of observation, and the power of reasoning, 
has taken its rightful place in the highest educational institution in 
Western Australia. In years to come, we shall look forward to the 
time, when some of those trained within its walls will play a part 
in helping to solve some of the many problems in Western Austra- 
