formation of the Eastern Colonies, where very similar rocks form the uppermost , 
beds of the great artesian area. These rocks are apparently destitute of organic 
remains, but as they rest conformably upon the Cretaceous rocks both here and in 
South Australia they have been classed with them; it is, however, possible that 
they are of a more recent origin, having possibly been formed shortly after the 
elevation of this Continent, when, as the surface must have been almost a dead 
level, little if any denudation would have occurred, though the upper beds would 
have been altered and the organic remains destroyed in situ by the vegetation 
aided by the action of the weather. That in places these beds are of terrestrial 
origin there is not the slightest doubt, as in the (juartzite beds, that- cap them in 
some parts of South Australia, vegetable remains have been found, and in other 
places all the indications point to a swampy or lacustrine source. 
Jurassic. 
These underlie the Cretaceous rocks North of Champion Bay, and are 
represented by oolitic limestone, clay ironstone, and ferruginous sandstone, grits, 
and conglomerates in many places containing-fossils. Connected with these] 
beds are some of liassic age, from which a series of fossils were sent by Mr. 
Clifton to Mr. Sandford, in England. They were all supposed to have come from 
Sharks Bay, and were described by Mr. C. Moore, F.G.S., - who says that the 
rocks in which they are imbedded are ferruginous and variegated limestones* 
clays, and ironstones, very similar to those of the same age occurring in Engl !im h 
Mr. Sheuton also sent a large collection of similar fossils to the 1862 Exhibition, 
in London. Both these collections have, unfortunately, been lost. 
There is a large development of this series in the Victoria district, and good 
sections are often exposed amongst the flat-topped hills and ranges. In this 
series of rocks there is nothing to indicate any break between the Oolites and the 
Upper Lias, as fossils from the same beds are attributed to each of those periods. 
The division in the table of strata lias only been introduced provisionally, as Mr. 
C. Moore has divided the fossils he described as some of the one age and some of 
the other, al §0 stating a difference in the matrix. 
Mesozoic rocks also occur on the Gascoyne .River forming the Kennedy 
Range, and stretch away up North to Cape North-West, but do not seem to extend, 
any further North. 
PALAEOZOIC. 
Carboniferous. 
Upper .—Sandstones and shales of this age are mostly seen forming flat-topped 
hills, attain their greatest development along the North Coast, but they are also 
met with in small patches, as from the Dixon Range to Mt. Deception, on the Ord 
River; the Hardman Range, on the Nicholson River; the Haugliton Range, to 
the South-West of Mt. Dock roll; the St. George’s, Grant, and several other small 
ranges on the Fitzroy River; also on the Lennard River. 
Coal seams of this age are also met with in the bed of the Collie River, about 
30 miles East of Bimburv in the South-West, hut their extent is at present 
unknown, as the whole surface is covered by more modern deposits. 
Lowe )\—This formation outcrops first on the Irwin River, about 50 miles 
from the coast, which it follows, running North in a belt about 20 miles wide, 
being exposed in the beds of the Greenough, Murchison, and Wooramel rivers, 
where the superincumbent formations have been removed. Oli the Gascoyne River 
and to the Northward, they rise and widen out, forming a broken table, which 
crosses the Henry, Ashburton, and Fortescue, then turning away to the North- 
East, and disappearing beneath War burton’s Great Sandy Desert, but again 
making their appearance on the South side of the Kimberley goldfield, between 
Mt. Elder and the Antrim Plateau, outcropping all along the edge of the basalt flow. 
