96 
Treating the G-ympie Beds from Lat. 21° southward as a whole, and including all 
the fossiliferous roots of the Rockhampton District, Kooingal, Cania, Tatton, Tarrol, 
Eaglan, and Langmorn, we have a very extensive list of fossils. By reference to 
the lists given on pages 43 and 92-94, several points of interest may be noted. 
It will be seen, in the fir.st place, that there is a very decided hiatus between the life 
of the Gympic Formation and that of the Devonian, not a single species being common 
to the two formations, and only three genera of Actinozoa, viz., Favosites, Paohyporn, 
and Cyathophyllum, and two of Brachiopoda, viz., Spirifera and BJtynchoneUa. 
Turning to the other members of the Permo-Carboniferous System, we find that 
all the genera of Plants, viz., Calamites, Lepidodendron, and Cordaifes, known in the 
Gympie Formation, are also present in the Star Formation. Among Criuoids, Actino- 
crinus, and among Crustaceans, Phillipsia, are common to both. Among Polyzoa, 
Fenestella is present in both. Lastly, the two formations have no less than nine genera 
of Mollusca in common — viz., Spirifera, Eeticularia, Betzia, Bliynchonetta, Orthis, 
StropJiomena, Ohonetes, Naticopsis, and Porcellia. None of the genera of plants found in 
the Gympie Formation are met with either in the Middle or Upper Bowen Formations. 
Of Actinozoa, Stenopora is the only genus common to the Gympie and Middle Bowen. 
Of Polyzoa, Fenestella and Protoretepora are genera common to the Gympie and 
Middle Bowen. Of Mollusca, fourteen genera are common to the Gympie and Middle 
Bowen — viz., Bielasma, Spirifera, Martiniopsis, Productiis, Chonetes, Aviculopecten, 
llodiomorpJia, Asiartella, Oheenomya, Mourlonia, Bellerophon, Porcellia, Orilioceras, and 
Goniatites. Productus and Goniatites are genera common to the Gympie and Upper 
Bowen. 
No less than ninety-five species are peculiar to the Gympie Bods. Twelve are 
common to the Star Beds, seventeen to the Middle Series of the Bowen River Coal Field, 
and two to the Upper Scries. It would appear from this that the Gympie Beds have 
most in common with the Middle Bowen River Beds, and nearly as much with the Star 
Beds. It must be recollected, however, that the BoweJi River Beds and the Star Beds, 
especially the latter, have as yet been but imperfectly collected from. 
It will be remembered that Lepidodendron has never yet been traced upward into 
the Bowen River Beds, although it is a characteristic plant of the Star Beds. It has, 
however, been found in the Gympie Beds in the Training AUall Quarries at Rockhamp- 
ton, and naturally forms a strong link connecting the Star and Gympie Beds. The 
abundance (in individuals) of Encrinites and Trilobites is another point which the 
Gympie and Star Beds have in common. Several species of Spirifera, Bliynohonella, 
Orthis, StropJiomena, and Chonetes, and some of Gasteropoda, are also common to the 
Star and Gympie Beds. 
On the other hand, Fenestella is very abundaut both in the Gympie Beds and 
the Middle Bowen River Beds. Three species of Spirifera, one of Beticularia, one of 
Martinia, one of Orthis, one of Strophomena, three of Produotns, one of Chonetes, one 
of Aviculopecten, one of Chcenomya, one of Platyschisma, one of Bellerophon, one of 
Porcellia, and one of Orthoceras are common to the Gympie and Middle Bowen Beds. 
In the face of the greater number of species common to the Gympie and Middle 
Bowen Beds than are common to the Gympie and Star Beds, it is not without some 
misgivings that I come to the conclusion that the Gympie Beds come nearer to the Star 
than to the Middle Bowen Beds. I was indeed till recently inclined to favour the idea 
that the auriferous Gympie Beds were only the coal-bearing Middle Bowen Beds some- 
what metamorphosed, and the presence of beds of graphite among the Gymjjie rocks 
lent colour to this view. But now, on the completion of my Colleague’s work, it strikes 
mo forcibly that if the two series were identical there could not be such a large number 
