president's address. 681 



probable that the first foldings of the Middle Devonian rocks ot 

 Queensland antedated the commencement of the Carboniferous or 

 the close of the Devonian Period in Australia. 



Whereas the i)rincipal axes of folding of the Middle Devonian 

 in Victoria strike N.W. and S.E., those of the Queensland Devo- 

 nian rocks strike principally N.E. and S.W. 



In the Kimberley District of West Australia, N.E. strikes 

 prevail, and, as already stated, whereas the Devonian rocks are 

 much folded, dipping at 70°, the contiguous Carboniferous strata 

 are almost horizontal, showing that most of the folding took place 

 between the close of some portion of the Devonian Period and the 

 commencement of the Carboniferous Period. 



One of the most stiiking features in the folding of the Aus- 

 tralian Palaeozoic sediments in Victoria and West Australia is the 

 immense contrast between the amount of folding to which the 

 Middle Devonian rocks have been subjected as compared with the 

 Carboniferous. No true folding appears to have taken place in 

 Victoria or at the Kimberley District of West Australia since the 

 close of the Devonian Period. 



In New Zealand the vast Takaka System was much folded and 

 eroded before the deposition of the succeeding Maitai System, 

 as shown on Captain Hutton's section* and Sir James Hector's 

 section.! The great Te Anau Fault J was formed probably, but 

 not certainly, before the Maitai System was deposited. There is 

 no evidence of any land occupying the present site of New Zealand 

 up to the close of the Takaka System, the deposits resembling 

 those laid down on the shores of a continent in seas of moderate 

 depth. There is a marked absence of conglomerates and of any 

 evidence, such as ripple-mark, suncrack, current bedding, &c., 

 indicative of shallow water conditions, and in the succeeding 

 Maitai System portion of the deposits are considered by Hutton § 

 to be probably abysmal. 



* Loc. cit. p. 195. 



t Loc. cit. p. 80. 



X f. Hutton, loc. cit. p. 196. 



§ Loc. cit. p. 201. 



