5 2 Sedimentary Formations 
same aye as the Victorian , New South Wales , Tasmanian, and Hew 
Zealand beds," p. 8, and Professor 'Newberry is quoted as identify¬ 
ing these fossils as those characteristic of Triassic or Jurassic 
ages.” (vSee ante, p. 4-6.) In the “Ocean Highways" for Nov., 
187:3, Baron von Richthofen says, the PumpeUy observations were 
only very limited in extent, and Iris map an hypothetical one made 
up from native reports, “in which he attempted to exhibit among 
other data, the distribution of the Coal Measures in China.” 
“The favourable result at which Mr. Pumpclly arrived, in respect 
to the great extent occupied by Coal-bearing strata in China was 
modified in some measure by the somewhat unsatisfactory conclu¬ 
sion drawn by him, from the determinations by Dr. Newberry of a 
few vegetable remains , that all the Chinese Measures are of the 
same age as the Triassic formation of Europe,” (p. 311). The 
Coal of China, however, found a highly qualified expositor in 
Baron Yon Richthofen himself, who from 1868 to 1872, made 
journeys nearly all over China, and found Coal-fields of enormous 
extent in many districts, nearly every one of which he personally 
visited, as he tells us in various publications. 
He mentions one seam of Silurian age ; several others in 
Devonian strata ; but lie adds “ the great bulk of the most ividely 
distributed and most valuable Coal-beds are proved by numerous and 
very characteristic Marine fossils to belong to the true Carboniferous . 
After the close of that epoch the deposition continued without 
interruption through the Permian, till probably towards the close 
of the Triassic epoch." 
These are his own words, and he justifies his determination of 
epochs by informing us, that “ he first determined with some 
accuracy the geological age of the Sedimentary formations by a 
great number of prolific fossiliferoua localities.” Nowhere in 
this account of his do we find mention of Oolitic or Jurassic Coal. 
So that really China should not be quoted to uphold the “ same 
qroup as the Cape Paterson series" (Report,}). 5). Rather might 
‘it uphold the Coal of New South 'Wales. If Marine fossils arc 
“ necessary,” none exist in Victoria as we have already seen and 
as the Report allows. 
The following passages from a notice of Richthofen’s discoveries 
concisely meet the facts lie bad developed, in the Provinces of 
Liao-tung and Shan-tung“ Tnfcti questi strati sono apparen- 
temente quasi parallel!fra di loro, e subiscono soltanto un leggiero 
cangiamento di inclinazione indicante il graduale passaggio 
da uti livello geologico ad un altro. Sarebbero queste localita 
importantissime a studiarsi, giaccbe sembra die vi esista la 
intiera aerie Paleozoica dal Silurico al Carbon ifero. Tutta 
siffatta serie e fortemente disturbata da roccie eruttive, e segnata- 
mente da graniti e da porfidi; la massima intensity di queste 
eruzioni si verifichcrebbe nei dintorni di Pechino. 
