20 
Sedimentary Formations 
wealth besides gold, as ores of copper, iron, tin, lead, antimony, 
mercury, etc. The. work entitled u Notes on the Geology of Queens¬ 
land , with the Appendix of Animal Fossils : By JR. Etheridge , Esy., 
JF.R.S., JF.G.S., Palaeontologist io the Geological Survey of Great 
on the Lalm, in Germany, where also are traces of copper ores and jasperised 
schists, as at Gytnpie. Mr. Racket’e excellent map of the Gym pie Gold¬ 
fields should be studied in connection with the valuable memoirs of Sedgwick 
and Murchison, in the “ Transactions of the Geological Society of London 
2nd series, vol. 0 : — “ On ilie Older Deposits of North Germany and Belgium.” 
0. There is another probable connection between these Gym pic beds and 
those just referred to. At any rate* so fur as the fossils go, they load to the 
conclusion that they arc not older than Devonian, and may he Upper 
Pahcozoic. The principal fossils capable of indication are Xueula, Fencsteila, 
Solarium, Spirifera, Orthonota, Edmoiulia, Stcnopom, and Producta, \\hieli 
last alone proves some of the beds lo be not above the Upper and nob below 
the Middle Pahcozoic periods. 
10. If this view is maintained, then we have evidence at. Gympie, which is 
well supported elsewhere in Queensland and in parts of New South Wales, 
that auriferous quartz-reefs occur in rocks younger than Silurian ; and wo 
hare there also an additional proof of the influence of greenstone in the 
production of gohl deposits. The fact was many years ago pointed out bv 
myself and by Mr. Odernheimer in relation t o the Peel River Gold-field, and 
it has since then been extensively confirmed in the Thames River Gold-field in 
New Zealand. 
11. In Mr. Aplin’s report of July 21, 1869, mention is made of the resem¬ 
blance of fossils in calcareous grits at Canal Creek to those in the “ diorite 
slates” at Gympie. The beds there are said to form “ a narrow hand between 
the greenstone area and the river” In* these strata, though placed under the 
head of “ Silurian beds,” the principal fossils are Spirifem and Producta. It 
is more than doubtful whether Producta has ever been found in the Silurian 
formations, and it is held to be the most distinct of all fossiliferous tests of the 
epoch to which it is confined. So far as is known, it belongs to the Upper and 
Middle Pahrozoic, and ranges only from Permian to Devonian formations. 
Assuming this limit for Canal Creek and Gympie, it becomes certain t hat; beds 
of the age to which the fossils belong have a wide range in Southern Queens¬ 
land, and this is the case in Northern Queensland also. Evidence will one 
day be produced to prove the occurrence of gold in the Upper Palaeozoic 
formations in other localities. Nay. Mr. Daintree lias given mo his reasons 
for believing that it so occurs on Peak Downs. (Sec quotation in note 
at p. 9.) 
The association of greenstone rocks with beds containing the fossils indicated, 
will form a guide for prospectors in fresh districts of the Colony. 
Too much importance cannot therefore he given to the establishment, of 
the fact to which the researches of Messrs. Racket, Daintree, Aplin, and 
Ulrich have contributed, that igneous rocks of a certain class are the surest 
indications of gold in Queensland. 
Air Etheridge figures the following species as Devonian from Gympie : — 
P Avtculopecten linurfor mis : ? A. imhricatus; A. multiradialus; Spirifera 
dubict; S. it nd if era ; Strophoniena rhomhdidalis, var. analog a ; Plenrotomaria 
earinata ; Euomphahu ; FenesteUa fosxula ; Ceriopora ? I ax a (Daintree s 
“ Notes on the Geologg of Queensland Q.J.G.S., Augt., 1872, pp. 1320, 33:3) ; 
others are mentioned as lulmondia coiicenlrica; Product us cora ; Spirifera 
hisulcala ; S. undulata } &c. 
De Ivoninck, 1877, considers the series to be Carboniferous, naming some of 
those given above as younger than Devonian. (See Appendix XVI. “ C 
