Notes on a Collection of Fossils and of Rock-specimens from West Australia, north of the Gascoyne River

Abstract

This collection was made by Mr. Forrest, the colonial surveyor, and forwarded by him together with the accompanying map to Sir Charles Nicholson, by whom the specimens were placed in the hands of Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys for determination. Dr. Jeffreys brought the parcel over to the apartments of the Geological Society, and it was suggested that I should undertake to examine and report upon them. Being quite unaware that the whole of the fossils were palæozoic, including several species of Polyzoa and Actinozoa, I somewhat rashly undertook a task which, as regards the palæontology, it would have been impossible for me to have fulfilled, but for the kind assistance of Professor Morris and Mr. Robert Etheridge, junior, to both of whom my acknowledgments and best thanks are due. It will scarcely be necessary to refer in detail to the literature of Australian geology on the present occasion. A full list of all the works bearing on the subject is be found in the catalogue by Messrs. Etheridge and Jack, whilst the former gentleman's catalogue of Australian fossils, published at the Cambridge University Press in 1878, is indispensable to any one who takes up this question. There are two works, however, that may be specially mentioned, viz., Strzelecki'.s ‘New South Wales’ &c., with notes on the fauna by Lonsdale and Morris, published in 1845, and De Koninck's ‘Rccherehes sur les fossiles paléozoiques de la Nouvelle GaUcs du Sud,’ published in 1876–7. The Quarterly Journal of the Society contains a most