396 
“ Tlie lithological character of these Cretaceous strata is such that decomposition 
is rapid ; and clilf-sections are accordingly rery rare, the resulting physical aspect being 
that of vast plains, which form the principal feature of Queensland scenery west of the 
main dividing range ; but that the ‘ Desert Sandstone’ has extended over all this country 
is evidenced by its existence either in the form of outliers or as a marked feature in situ 
on all main watersheds, or by its pebbles of quartz and conglomerate, which are strewn 
everywhere over the surface of the plains. 
“ The height of the watershed between the Thompson and the Dlinders Eivers 
is locally not more than 1,400 feet above sca-lcvel ; and as the former river has to 
travel as many miles before reaching the sea, it is easy to understand why, in a 
country subject to heavy tropical rains at one period of the year, followed by a long 
dry season, the river channels are ill-defined, and vast tracts of country covered by 
alluvial deposits.” 
Mr. Eobert Etheridge, E.E.S., in an Appendix to Mr. Daintree’s Paper, gave a 
detailed description of the fossils from tho Flinders area, which need not here be 
repeated, as in the following pages the names and descriptions are recapitulated, 
with annotations and the results of a fuller experience, by my Colleague. 
Sjieaking of tho material which formed the subject of Mr. Moore’s paper 
already referred to, Mr. Etheridge says * * * § : — “ It is, however, to be regretted that his 
specimens were not obtained in sifu, instead of from drifted materials ; for nothing 
is known of the beds or sections from which the W ollumbilla fossils originally 
came. It is not a little singular, however, that Mr. Moore recognised twenty 
species as common to England and Western Australia.” In this, and the same 
Writer’s remarks on Mr. Taylor’s Walsh fossils, as well as in Mr. Daintreo’s remarks, 
we can trace the steady growth of the misconception which I believe was started by 
the Eev. W. B, Clarke’s error in taking the Wollumbilla nodules for drifted boulders. 
Prom the imperfect materials at In's disposal, and taking his stratigraphical 
information, it must be remembered, at second-hand, Mr. Etheridge read the sequence 
of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic strata, as follows 
O 
o < 
^Pleistocene. 
VLower Volcanic. 
' r Marathon Beds. 
Cretaceous •< Hughenden Beds. 
(.Maryborough Beds. 
r TtBnioplcris [Tivoli and Burrum Coal Measures]. 
Oolitic ■< Wollumbilla Beds. Lias and Oolite. 
(.Gordon Downs Bcds.f 
I may say here that later stratigraphical observations show, and palseontological 
research corroborates, that the Burrum Coal Field is older than the Ipswich (repre- 
sented by Tivoli in the above list) ; that I regard the Hughenden, Marathon, and 
Wollumbilla Beds as practically on the same horizon and of Lower Cretaceous age; 
and that the Desert Sandstone and Maryborough Beds are identical and Upper 
Cretaceous. 
Sir Eichard Owen describes J under the name of Notochcirjs cosiata, Owen,§ * 
Chelonian reptile from tho Flinders Eiver. 
* Loc, cU., p. 323. 
t Gordon Downs, near Roma, the locality referred to, must not be confounded with Gordon Downs 
at the head of the Roper, near Clermont, where Permo-Carboniferous Coal Measures occur. 
J Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxxviii., p. 178. 
§ Hereinafter described aa Notochclane costata, Owen, sp. {R. E. Junr.) 
