36 
Sedimentary Formations 
Carruthers, whose judgment none perhaps would rashly call into 
question, in the discussion which ensued upon the reading of 
Mr. Daintree’s paper (op. cit.), argued that 44 With regard to the 
supposed Glossopteris and Tseniopteris Epochs, -which by some 
had been regarded the one as Palaeozoic and the other as 
Mesozoic, he was not convinced that they could be distinctly 
separated, but thought rather that they might belong to different 
portions of one (/real period. '* * * Ho thought that 
neither was of a date earlier than Permian.’’ 
The conclusion I have all along held is, that the 44 Carbonif¬ 
erous” strata, and those which it pleases dissidents to fancifully 
designate as 44 Carbonaceous” (which is, at the best, a misnomer ), 
are parts of one great series, and that the beds which contain 
Mesozoic Marine fossils may be properly placed in still higher 
stages of the Palaeontological edifice. 
In noticing my opinion expressed in 1861 (in a paper 44 On 
Recent Geological Discoveries and Correlation of Australasian For¬ 
mations with those of Fur ope”), Sir Roderick Murchison ( 44 Address 
to the Gcol. Sec. of Frit. Association at Manchesterf Sept. 5th, 
1861), holding the view of a possible double series, stated that 
he had received a communication from Mr. Gould in which he 
(Mr. G.) says, that in 44 Coal-fields of the rivers Mersey and Don, 
one of the very few which are worked in Tasmania, he has con¬ 
vinced hiniselt that the Coal underlies beds containing specimens 
of true Old Carboniferous fossils,” and adds 44 that in Tasmania at 
least, the Coal most w r orlced is unquestionably of Paleozoic age,” 
(p. 23.) In this Mr. Selwyn (Q.J.G.S.,' xvi, p. 147) fully 
concurs. 
Now, in the paper on which the above comments were 
made 1 had expressly affirmed, that reviewing the w’hole dis¬ 
cussion I was willing to admit, 44 that though some of our Coal 
appears to belong to the true Carboniferous epoch, yet it is 
possible that some may belong to the Permian epoch as sug¬ 
gested by Mr. Dana for the Newcastle Coal, or to the Triassic 
as suggested for; the Indian and Virginian Coal; hut I am not 
yet [/. e., hi 1861, nor am I now , 1878] cominced that our New r 
South Wales Coal-seams are of Oolitic age.” 
My highly respected friend Dana at one time abandoned the 
Permian for the Trias, and Dr. O. Feist man ted of Calcutta is 
labouring diligently to support this view in opposition to those 
of Dr, Oldham and Professor Blanford. (Seep. 62.) 
But the question is still an open one, although the Oolites are 
insolvent; and if all our N. S. Wales Coal is not somewhere 
between the Trias and Palaeozoic, or at the top of the latter, in an 
intermediate Palaeozoic stage not knowmin Europe, it-will require 
strong faith and stronger affirmation to cast it all into a Mesozoic 
receptacle, notwithstanding the possible relianco of my Victorian 
