in New Countries . 
11 
to show me fossil corals from the Argyle district, which 
appeared strictly identical with those that are so abun¬ 
dant on the Dudley Hills, and other Silurian districts of 
England. Altogether it appears probable, that the 
aqueous formation or formations which occupy the east 
coast of Australia and Tasmania are the represen¬ 
tatives of the Silurian and Devonian rocks, including 
perhaps the carboniferous system of England, in one un¬ 
interrupted and conformable series of deposits. If this 
be true, it will be a highly interesting and important 
fact, as showing the great range of these rocks under the 
same conditions, from the plains of Russia through the 
continent of North America to the new world of Aus¬ 
tralasia. 
There are, I believe, to the west of the Blue Mountains 
of Australia, and about Portland Bay and South Aus¬ 
tralia, newer formations, which, from the fossils I have 
seen, I am inclined to suspect may be of the age of the 
upper oolitic or cretaceous periods. There are also near 
Portland Bay very recent tertiary rocks. In Tas¬ 
mania also are some very recent tertiary rocks. Mr. 
Price’s limestone quarry in James’s Bay, and a quarry in 
the outskirts of Hobart Town, on its western side, are both 
worked in an irregular yellow limestone, like a travertin, 
which contains two species of Helix , and a number of 
leaves and impressions of plants. One of the Helices at 
least appears to me identical with a common one now 
living on the spot, and the leaves seem to have much the 
character of the present vegetation of the country. The 
limestone lies in irregular masses in sand and clay. That 
in James’s Bay lies horizontally in a small valley, but 
that in Hobart Town occupies the summit of a low rounded 
hill, dips at a considerable angle to the south west, and 
appears to have been tilted by a mass of trap, of which 
one half the hill is composed. 
