Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/334

 226

PROCEEDINGS

OF

THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

POSTPONED PAPERS.

1. Australian Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology. By Charles Moore, Esq., F.G.S.

[Plates X.-XVIII.]

(Read November 10, 1869*.)

The early pioneers of Australian colonization were too intent upon the practical concerns of daily life to give much attention to scientific investigations, and they consequently overlooked many sources of wealth which they have since learnt were within their reach.

The subsequent discovery of the mineral treasures possessed by the Australian colonies has shown the importance of their more minute and careful survey, and has given an impetus to the study of their geological characters.

The first steps in the exploration of a new country would naturally be the determination of the prevailing geological formations ; and as time and opportunity permitted their minuter subdivisions would have to be worked out, and correlated with any of their equivalents in other parts of the world.

In this way it was soon established that the chief sedimentary deposits in Australia were either Palaeozoic or Tertiary, and it seemed to be the prevailing opinion that the great intermediate formations included in the Mesozoic group, comprising the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous rocks, were altogether absent.

We have been slowly learning that these conclusions were too hastily arrived at†; and it is at last incontrovertibly established that some of the missing Mesozoic beds are represented on the great Australian continent.

Setting aside the question of the geological age of the coal-beds of Newcastle in New South Wales, respecting which there was a difference of opinion amongst both Australian and other geologists (the Rev. W. B. Clarke considering them to be of true Carboniferous

Journal.
 * For the discussion on this paper see p. 2 of the present volume of the

† As already shown by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, in his notice of "Marine Fossiliferous Secondary Formations in Australia," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 7, 1867.