CHAPTEE XXIII. 
THE TEIAS-JUEl SYSTEM. 
LOWER (BUERUM) FORMATION. 
Oa a higher horizon than the Permo-Carboniferous System and on a lower than 
the Ipswich Formation, the great series of coal-bearing rocks known as the Burrum 
Coal Field is met with. This Coal Field extends along the eastern coast line, from Point 
Cartwright on the south at least to Littabella Creek on the north, and stretches inland 
for an average distance of twenty-five miles. Its area may be roughly estimated at 
three thousand square miles. 
Divided from the main area of the Burrum Coal Field by a mass of granite, a 
small area supposed to belong to the same period is met with at the south end of Eodd 
Bay. 
Still another area, believed to be of the same age, occurs in the Valley of the 
Styx, at the southern end of Broad Sound. 
The Burrum Formation has been traced southward to near Point Cartwright, 
where it is no great distance from the northern end of the Ipswich Coal Field. The 
two coalfields are separated by a protrusion of slaty rocks, which may be supposed to 
belong to the Gympie Formation. It is to be regretted that the relation of the two 
fields cannot be seen at this point. All that can be stated is that they apparently are 
characterised by a distinct fauna and flora. 
The Burrum Coal Field is characterised by a very meagre flora and a fauna 
represouted only by one species of Gorlicula and one of Bocellaria. The latter are 
both new species. Of the flora four species occur also in the Ipswich Formation, while 
six other species are confined (so far as our Collections show) to the Burrum For- 
mation. 
Mr. Gregory referred to the finding of Glossopteris aho'iQ the Upper or Beau- 
fort Seam of Coal. Mr. Eauds observed in his Eeport of 1886 that he liad failed to find 
Glossopteris. In his Annual Eeport for 1886, however, he stated, “I have found several 
specimens of Glossopteris Browniana amongst stone from the Briton Shaft.” My 
Colleague, however, is not satisfied that Glossopteris really occurs in these beds. Such 
of Mr. Gregory’s and Mr. Eands’ specimens as have come under his notice he regards 
as Tseniopterid plants. 
The whole country covered by this formation is low and flat, and is characterised 
b}' a poor soil and stunted vegetation. The latter circumstance is, however, due to a thin 
covering of a more recent formation which overlies it iinconformably. 
Distinct from the thin covering and certainly older, is the group of fossiliferous 
sandstones known as the Maryborough Beds, which are placed on the same horizon as 
the Desert Sandstone {mliich see). The relation of the Vlaryborough Beds to the 
Burrum Beds, although obscure, is believed to be that the former rest iinconformably 
on the latter, and that a fault (which, however, is not seen) must account for the fact 
that the lowest of the Maryborough Beds, after dipping, do not rise on the other side. 
Their apparent conformability to the Burrum Beds must be deceptive, as even if the 
latter were equivalent to the uppermost members of the Ipswich Formation, the whole 
of the Eolling Downs Period is unrepresented. Mr. Eands sends me (in a letter dated 
16th September, 1889) the Section reproduced in Plate 46, fig. 3, explanatory of this 
relation. 
