46 THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN AUSTRALIA, 



take the trouble to go up to the place where all this gravel and 

 clay was said to have been brought down from, so that, as he 

 himself states, his evidence is very unsatisfactory. He also tries 

 to bring some other geological facts in connection with a glacial 

 period. I however, perfectly agree with Hutton (1), that all the 

 formations referred to by Mr. Griffiths, could just as well have 

 been formed in another way, and I do not think it likely that 

 Mr. Griffith's clays and gravels are of glacial origin. 



Own Observation. 



Every child in the European Alps knows that glaciers are 

 formed on mountains and nowhere else. So if one wants to find 

 glacial remains, of course up the mountains one must go. If the 

 glaciers at any time since the land has attained its present shape, 

 have extended so far as Tate and Griffiths assert, if the Omeo Lake 

 has been scooped out by glacier ice which Howitt considers possible, 

 how much clearer must the evidence of glaciers be then, in the heart 

 of the mountains down the sides of which they must have extended 

 and where they must have originated. 



On the other hand, if no evidence of glacial action is found in 

 the low lands, that is no reason why glaciers could not have been 

 present on the slopes of the highest mountains. 



It is quite evident from this, that the glacial traces must be 

 looked for in the mountains first, and then, when the existence of 

 traces of prehistoric glaciers there have been found, the investi- 

 gation can be extended down to the low lands to ascertain how far 

 the glacies reached. The gentlemen mentioned above never took 

 the trouble to look for the glacial traces in the alpine valleys, so 

 that of course no reliance whatever can be placed on their state- 

 ments where negative, and even where positive, they will not be 

 satisfactory. 



On these grounds I undertook an expedition to the highest 

 mountains in Australia, knowing that I could easily decide the 

 question of pre-historic glaciation there. 



(1) Hutton. The Origin of the Fauna and Flora of New Zealand, part II ., 

 p. 16. 



