139 
Of tbese remains Mr. Etlieridge says * ; “ On examining tKe scales and otlier 
P ates they struck me at once as those of a Pala;oniscid, but before finally adopting 
•s view T forwarded drawings to Mr. A. S. Woodward, of the British Museum, who 
■confirmed it.” 
, Mr. James Smith, having been sent to collect from this locality, made a report 
Med 23rd March, 1891— the last received from him — which, though tinged with the 
Pardonable exaltation of an enthusiastic naturalist, is as full of shrewd observation as 
Miy of his earlier writings, .and may be quoted in full as practically his “ last wmrds” 
° llio scientific world. On 4th April Mr. Smith returned to Rockhampton from a 
° ecting trip to Springsure, suffering from the effects of exposure and repeated 
citings^ and on 10th April expired. 
“The mud shales [of the Drummond Range] are very susceptible to decomposi- 
, fi-’be action of the atmosphere crumbles them rapidly back into the dust from 
^Cn they came. They are eaten out from between the sandstone beds, which, left 
topple down and encumber the slopes of the hills, showing to 
'''•Ifiout support, 
advi 
Mtage the process of denudation. Or they stretch along for miles in over- 
cliffs, giving variety to the view. By this process glens and gorges a thousand 
deep have been excavated, forming the magnificent laudsc.apes of the Drummond 
Se f numerous railw.ay cuttings, some of them forty feet deep, afford splendid 
for studying the character of the formation. I made sixty traverses, on foot 
I) , y ''‘''■>1, of those cuttings, and adjacent creeks and gullies ; examined all the spill- 
'’•'id rock-shelves. After the most careful observations I could see no sign of 
°^8auism, in any of the shales. 
S^th sandstones the h.arvests of the collector’s treasures can be 
ered — an abundant land flora, a still more .abundant marine fauna. 
^didg 1 plant-remains are Cyolostiyma, Leyidodendron, and Calamites of 
^ _ various 
l>oautifully marked, fluted, and grooved. Those have been determined in the 
Penison Woods’ work on the ‘Dossil Flora of the Coal Deposits of Australia,’ 
a m great abundance. In every spill-bank, in every creek, they are printed 
Wat„ rocks, in promiscuous confusion, as if wafted to a shore and sanded up, or 
egge^i aiifi sinking to the bottom. 
sanq . * there is the great fish-bed. A baud of fine-gr.ained, finely stratified, grey 
twelve inches thick — the lowest band of the cutting at Hannam’s Gap. 
and has been excavated, and east aside on spill-banks, on both sides of the 
The centre of the band is black, and has the appear.ance of anthracite, 
I believe, from the matter of the fishes’ bodies. The sc.ales in this centre part 
’■Mlway 
'lerivej 
are 
left ^^ack and glistening, the bones merely black films. The action of the air has 
centj.Q^^ M**^*tle part all gaping open in parallel fissures. It is on both sides of 
this 
In throughout tiio rest of the body of the stone, that the fish-remains are 
P*’®acrviation. They consist of bones, sc.ales, spines, and fins, in marvellous 
^areg Among the fins are heterocercal fish-tails. There are also oolitic struc- 
boug^’ I suggest maybe the spawn of fishes. Although there are some curved 
ike teeth, two inches long and half-an-incli thick at the base, yet 
I think the fishes were of small size ; the fins are only a little longer 
eatjti^ haddock. The rhomboid scales, with comma-like .attachment, are 
"’I’inkl ^ "'I’inhled. The triangular ones are deeply serrated on the sides and 
the back, while the ‘ oat-shaped’ (^Eth. Junr.) ones have a short groove in 
55 ,1'“ 
bi 
* LoCs cits 
