New South Wales. 
53 
a La formazione Carbonifera di Pecliino lia lino sviluppo stra- 
ordinario.” [ t£ F. Coviit. Geolog. <PItalia, Bullelino 0-10, 1871, 
p. 234.”] “ Presso il la go Poyaug il deposit o seistoso, ora 
accennato, b ricoporto da regolarissimi strati Carbon ifcri, fra i 
quali sono intercalate alcuni straticelli calcarei ricehissimi di 
b radii op odi in pcrfetto stato di conservazione. Questa fauna 
differ!see csscnzialmente da quella die vedesi associata al carbon 
fossile nello provincie nordiclie della China: il genere Frodnctus 
vi 6 preval cute per numcro, ma il caratteristieo _P. scmiretieulatus vi 
e searso e rappresentato solo da piccoli individui Earissimi sono 
gli eseniplari di Sjpirifer, mefttre vi abbondano; crinoidi, i coralli, 
gli spongiarii edi gencri Orlhoccras e Pore cilia : sonvi pure rappre- 
sentati i generi Ct/rlia , Orthis, Siplionotreta, &c.” [id., p. 230.] 
Mr. T. W. Kingsmill confirms these statements in his account 
of the Geology of the Last Coast of China, considering with others 
that “The Chinese Coal-fields may prove to bo the largest in the 
world, and at a future period will have an important influence on 
the destinies of the East*”* 
More recently, in 1S73, a letter written to M. Danbree by M. 
l’Abbe Armand David states, that in the district of Micn-shien 
Coal-beds exist in association with Marine Pabcozoie fossils and 
so-called Secondary plants which the author describes as inter- 
polatmg cacti oilier — “ Cc que je ne puis m’expliquer e’est 
l’existencc de ccs calcaires durs cristallins au-dessus do la handle 
ct au-dcssous, avec des apparences physiques, identiques, quoiqu’ils 
soient separes par 100 ou 200 metres de marnes.” (“Pull, dela 
Soc. Geol. de France 3 ser., t. ii., 1874, No. 5, p. 400. 
He also states that on the mountain of Lean-chan, near 
II an - 1 ch o ng-f o u , nearly 3,000 feet high, a grayish-white lime¬ 
stone from 300 to 600 feet thick, having a dip of from 40° to 
60°, forms the summit. 
Below comes in a series of bluish, red, and yellow marls con- 
cordantly stratified with the limestones, followed by red beds like 
sandstone, the whole system abounding in fossils. Coal occurs 
above the marl in contact with the upper limestone, which, as well 
as the shales and clays, contains vegetable and shelly fossils. 
Ad. Brongniart describes in the same number of th u “Bulletin 1 
the plant remains to be Pecopferis Whitby ensis; two Sphcnoptcris 
* (Notice in “ Geologist,” 6, p. 60, of a paper rend before the Geol. Soe. 
Dublin in 1862. Dub. Q.J.) In a valuable memoir, 44 On the Geology of 
China” by the Fame author, we learn that besides Devonian, Marine.fossils, 
and Carboniferous beds containing Lepidodrendon and Sigillaria, and in some 
places younger conglomerates, and red sandstones not unlike Triasaic succeed 
them, “the Coal, at the latest, being Triassic.” In other parts, such ns in 
the Tung-ting system, he tells ns that “ there is a striking resemblance 
between it and the Devonian and Subcarboniferous rocks of the South of 
Ireland — the same succession of grits and shales at the bottom, and a similar 
development of limestone above, while the type of the few fossils found seems 
likewise to approach that of the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Europe.” 
(Q.J.G.S., xxv, pp. 110-138, 1866.) 
