i4 Sedimentary Formations. 
remember picking up, in 1S29, in tlie “ Plate” of Coblentz on 
the Rhine, a similar drift pebble, of just such rock as that in 
question, containing a Brachiopod of like age. 
During some recent explorations in the north-west of this 
Colony, I became satisfied as to the widely-spread extent of the 
Devonian series, of which more evidence will bo elicited here¬ 
after, the data for which are already sufficient, but there is no 
room to introduce them on this occasion. 
I may add here, that Do Koniuck considered the fossils he 
examined to be above the European strata with Calceola; but 
though not present therewith, Calceola occurs at Mount Erorne, 
in the county of Phillip, and Streptorhyncus elsewhere. 
Tasmania gives no well-established proof of the existence of 
Devonian rock. But it is a fair inference, first suggested by the 
late Mr. Salter, that the broad-winged Spirifers common there 
in the Palaeozoic beds imply the probable occurrence. Mr. Jukes 
and Mr. Gould both repeated the inference. Mr. Darwin and 
Mr. Selwyn agree that some of the Tasmanian fossils u occur in 
the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous strata of Europe.” 
This is nearly all that is known respecting their position. 
’Western Australia, according to Mr. Brown’s Report, adds 
nothing to the history of the Middle Palaeozoics; but Mr. IT. 
Gregory indicated on his map and in his Report the existence 
of Devonian rocks near York, and in other parts of that Colony. 
Having examined the rocks so indicated, I can only state my 
belief that they have no pretension to any such antiquity, and 
are probably mere collections of loose granitic matter and other 
drift cemented by ferruginous paste, which has since become 
transmuted into concretionary nodules and haematite. There aro 
also pebbles of trap, much decomposed, in the so-called Devonian. 
They may perhaps be more properly considered as representing 
the later lie of India. 
Queensland, on the other hand, exhibits a stretch of Devonians 
extending through ten degrees of latitude. Not the least interest¬ 
ing facts are that the Tin Mines of Queensland (as well as those 
of New South Wales) occur in granites of Devonian age. 
At Gympie, on the river Mary, rich gold-bearing quartz reefs 
occur in transmuted slates and other tilted beds, which are com¬ 
posed of detrited dioritic matter and brecciated deposits, in 
which are abundance of fossils of doubtful aspect, and these I 
before referred to some part of the Carbouiferous formation. Mr. 
Etheridge considers and has described the fossils as Devonian. 
They certainly have much in common with the Devonian beds 
of North Germany and Belgium, described by Sedgwick and 
Murchison, as I stated in the Second edition, p. 10. It is right, 
however, to remark that Professor M‘Coy does not adopt this 
determination, considering the rocks to be younger. 
