ADDRESS. 643 



but largely intermixed with f oraminifera and bracliiopoda. When 

 we consider what numbers of these organisms are required to 

 make up one cubical inch of such stone, the countless hosts in 

 hundreds of square miles is a bewildering thought. In the days 

 when I first examined these strata everything was in keepmg 

 with such silent records of geologic time. The cliffs and caves 

 were untouched, except by the hand of time. The country, then 

 called the new country, was scarcely settled upon, and one might 

 travel all day without meeting even a blackfellow. The varie- 

 gated cliffs were in their original state in those silent forests or 

 plains. In some few places weathering had exposed surfaces 

 like the Dover cliffs, and cj^uite as white and dazzling. For tho 

 most part the strata were weathered into rounded steps or terraces, 

 coloured yellow, red, or orange, and dotted over with the bushes 

 and creepers that grew abundantly upon them. Every one who 

 knows the graceful forms assumed by the calcareous bryozoa will 

 understand the world of wonder and beauty that was revealed by 

 a close inspection of the stone. It was easy to gather abundant 

 material for speculation, but I searched in vain for any clue by 

 which I could give them a name. 



Palaeontology was not then the science it is now. D'Orbignj^ 

 Eeuss, Hagenow, Michelin, and Busk had hardly given their 

 labours to the world, and their works were not accessible in the 

 Australian Bush. I did not care so much about giving a name 

 to all these remains as to be able to give a place in Greology to 

 the strata which contained them. What age were they ? Tertiary 

 I scarcely doubted, though there was much about them which 

 recalled the chalk or upper cretaceous of Euroi)e. But to what 

 place in the tertiary deposits to assign them I did not kow. I 

 made a large collection of the fossils, and sent them to London, 

 to Sir Charles Lyell, who had from the beginning given me 

 great help in my Geological studies. I had become acquainted 

 with him through Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster. I 

 mention both these names, for surely Greology owes more to them 

 4P 



