HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TERTIARY GEOLOGY.

BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON WOODS, F.G.S., ETC.

(See also the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1876. 8vo. pp 45. Hobart Town, 1876.)

IN the first of the above papers the Rev. Mr. Woods, after a brief notice of the chief works bearing on Australian Tertiary Geology, passes to a consideration of some important questions arising therein. For instance, he asks - Do the Tertiary formations of Australia exhibit any sign of a persistence of the types common to the Secondary formation of the continent? This question Mr. Woods tells us may be answered in the negative. "Some of the Brachiopoda have faint Secondary affinities, but the Echinodermata are certainly not Mesozoic in character." The Secondary types in the Australian Tertiary deposits are few and rare; they may be summarized as two species of Trigonia, both differing from existing forms, and a Pleurotornaria.¹In other respects the resemblance between the European and Australian Tertiary rocks is considerable, whilst there

1 There are three Trigoniae, viz. T. acuticostata, M'Coy; T. semiundulata, M'Coy; and T. Howitti, M'Coy. The first of these has recently been found living in Bass's Straits. The Pleurotomaria referred to by Mr. Woods is T. Tertiaria, M'Coy. - R. E., Jun.

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is the same break between the Secondary and Tertiary series. Mr. Woods is of opinion that the weight of evidence is against the theory advanced by some that any part of the continent has remained dry land since the Mesozoic period.

[this review then continues by referencing other papers]