COLONIES ANGLAISES.—NOUVELLE-GALLES DU SUD—SYDNEY.

100

Class 1.

Mining andMetals.

that there are sufficient grounds why, for the present atleast, the adopted classification holds good as respectsAustralia; and for which there will be found abundanttestimony in the writings of the Rev. W. 13. Clarke, Pro-fessor Dana, Professor Jukes, and Mr. Stutchbury—testi-mony which has received the sanction also of ProfessorEdward Forbes.

The reader will perceive in this Catalogue that no“««-ccmdary ” formations are marked as existing in New SouthWales. The whole series, from the middle tertiary forma-tions, including the lower Tertiary, the Cretaceous, andJurassic groups, are excluded ; and the inference is, that,during the period in which those groups were forming inEurope, Asia, and America, as well as in Africa, the Aus-tralian Palæozoic formations were dry land, and remaineduncovered by the sea. And, inasmuch as the living shells,plants and animals in Australia have amongst them typesof shells, plants, and animals which in Europe characterizethe Jurassic (Oolite) group of rocks, it is not improbablethat the living Fauna and Flora of Australia—which are toso great a degree peculiar—represent what may be to acertain extent considered, as regards the present epoch,the most ancient and primitive of living animal and vege-table forms.

It may, however, be right to mention here, that theexclusion of “ secondary ” formations is justified by the lawlaid down by Professor Agassiz, viz., that none of the fisheswhich belong to the secondary formations are heleroaercal.The fish, No. 83, which belongs to the Wianamatta beds, isdecidedly heterocercal ; ami, therefore, by the law inquestion, those beds are Palæozoic. Heterocercal fishes, inthe next division, have been discovered in Cockatoo Island,and in the Newcastle coal-beds. The (Jrostkenes Australis(exhibited by the Rev. C. P. N. Wilton) is also heterocercal.The Ichthyological evidence is therefore quite clear, as tothe absence of homoccrcal forms in the rocks of New SouthWales. Perfect tails of fishes from Campbelltown (No. 82),have not yet been found ; but the character of the scales isGanoidal, and Palæozoic, and what is seen of the tail offersno objection.

In short, an inspection of the present collection will suffi-ciently demonstrate the high autiquity of the solid portionsof the Australian lands ; for nearly the whole of the forma-tions are Palæozoic, with an absence of all (or nearly all)traces of secondary, and with nothing left but two divisionsof tertiary formations, and these scantily expanded, to markthe interval of enormous periods of time, and the break ofmany thousand vertical feet in the straligraphical scale.

The alluvial beds of the auriferous districts above thegold deposits, are not represented in this collection ; becausethe Exhibitor, having examined and tabulated the productsof those beds with a separate intention, and for the purposeof preserving an independent record of the specimens in thegold collections made by the various Commissioners, sawno necessity for introducing them here. Rut he takes thisopportunity of stating, after some experience, and from athorough acquaintance with nearly the whole of the colony,as his opinion respecting the age of its gold, that its formaltion has taken place in rocks of the Silurian, Devonian, andCarboniferous eras; and (as well expressed by M. JulesMarcou, in the explanatory text of liis geological map ofthe United States, p. 75), “in rocks whose dislocations havetaken place during the second period of the Palæozoic for-mations, from the end of the Silurian deposit to the Permianepoch.” This admission would show that the Mitta Mittagranite must be more recent than its actual position in thisCatalogue. It must therefore be explained, that, inasmuchos there is not space to introduce sufficient of the neigh-bouring rocks to show its probable relative locality, theMitta Mitta granite, and the red granites, Nos. 424 and 425,have been placed with more quartziferous, and, therefore,older granites, below the slates ; the specimens from No.393 to No. 406 illustrating the distinct passage, in anotherpart of the colony, from the schistose to the granitic struc-ture

The Rraidwood granite, which is felspathic and horn-blendic, and which is also, probably, of no great compara-tive antiquity, is placed in connection with its neighbouringrocks, in which alluvial gold is found, in a more suitableposition. In order, however, to bring together some in-stances of naturally-connected rocks, the Rraidwood auri-ferous district is represented from No. 317 to No. 325. Therocks, from No. 326 to No. 333. and Nos. 314 and 345,represent the formations in the western gold fields. ThePeel River auriferous district is represented by the speci-mens from No. 338 to No. 343 ; and the principal igneousrocks in the colony arc briefly rex>resented, from No. 271

to No. 297, inclusive; although, as it is impossible dis-tinctly to assign the exact age of each, from the want ofconsecutive tertiary and secondary sedimentary groups,they are placed together for convenience.

There are a few specimens introduced, not strictly fromwithin the present limits of New Souch Wales, but suchonce belonged to that colony, and are added to completethe series, where there is a considerable break. The stra-tified rocks of the present colony, with the exception ofmodern deposits, only commence, however, at No. 73.

W. R. C.

14f/i November , 1854.

A and R.— Modern and Quaternary Rocks.

1 Soundings with sp. of Venus—Reef off King’s Island.

2 Ashes from Rush Fire of February, 1850, swept from—

Deck of Vessel, mouth of Rass’ Strait.

3 Recent Fluviutile Conglomerate—Murrumbidgcc.

4 Shells from raised beach—Botany Ray.

5 Shells from raised beach— Kissing Point.

6 Salt, by natural evaporation—Carangamite Lake.

7 Recent Marine Conglomerate—Reach, Wollongong.

8 Oxidation of Sandstone—North Shore, Sydney.

9 liaised Beach—Richmond River.

10 Raised Coral—Lifu Island, New Caledonia,

11 Earth baked by Bush Fire—Prospect.

12 Aurilerous Earth fused by Rush Fire—Turon River.

13 Tufa entangling Basalt—Scott’s Mountain, Waibong.

14 Raised Coral Reach—St. Helena island, Moreton Ray.

15 Travertin—Burrugorang.

16 Travertin with Shells—Scott’s Mountain, Waibong.

17 Shells from Travertin—Scott's Mountain, Waibong.

18 Phyllites in Iron Clay—Rank of Ilookanvil Creek, Peel

River.

19 Raised Coral Beach—N. end of Great Sandy Island,

Hervey’s Ray, lat. 25° S.

20 Casts of Coprolites in Iron-stone —South Coast.

21 Rat’s Head entangled in Stalactite—Cavern,'head of

Coodradigbee River.

21/i Travertin with Phyllites—Stonequarry Creek (Picton).

22 Shells from Alluvial Deposit—Ash Island, Hunter

River.

22a & 26a Rock basin9 or cups from the Reach at entranceof Middle Harbour.

23 Sand from bed of Murray-Near Swan Ilill.

24 Iron Sand— Tuggerah Reach Lake.

25 Iren Sand —Near Goulburn.

26 Drift Pumice—Bradley’s Head.

27 Stream Tin—Reedy Creek.

28 Iridium and Native Loadstone—Ringera Diggings.

29 Gold rendered globular by action of heat on the rock—

Murrumbidgee.

30 Globular Gold from Conglomerate—Shelly’s Flat, near

Maruian.

31 Gold in Pebbles of Conglomerate—Shelly’s Flat, near

Maruian.

32 Selenite—Ash Island, TIunter River.

33 Calcareous Deposit from Shells and Corals—Red Point,

Moreton Ray.

3 4 Crystals of Gold—Southern Diggings.

35 Gold found iu Wild Duck’s Gizzard—Gyra River, Now

England.

36 Gold found in Crop of Wonga Wonga Pigeons —Gyra

River, 14 miles from Annidalc,

37 (Sold — Yass River, 16 miles from Yass.

38 Gold—Bendoc River, Maneero.

39 Gold—Eucumhone River, Maneero.

40 Gold—Gungallion River, Maneero.

41 Gold—Kentucky, New England.

42 Tailings of'Washed Earth-Reed’s Creek, Albury.

43 Auriferous Ironstone—Otneo Lake.

44 Drifted Molybdate of Lead - North Shore.

45 Drifted Yenite—Tuggerah Reach Lake.

46 Drifted Red Hematite— Port Essington.

47 Drifted Concretions from Trap—Goomburra, Darling

Downs.

48 Native Silver - Southern Gobi Diggings.

49 Osseous Breccia (Bird Rones)—Coodradigbee Cavern.

50 Osseous Breccia (Rones of Macropus)—Coodradigbee

Cavern.

51 Osseous Breccia (Bones of Macropus)—Coodradigbee

Cavern.

52 Jaw of Diprotodon-Condaminc River.

53 Jaw of Diprotodon • King’s Creek, Darling Downs.

54 Vertebral Bone—Condamiue River.

55 Jaw of Diprotodon from alluvial soil 60 feet deep—

Galcndaddai, Melville Plains, Namoi River.