FORMER LAND CONNECTIONS. 125 



cap had its centre in the Transvaal, whence it radiated outwards, 

 moving westwards into S.W. Africa, south-westwards into the Cape, 

 and south-eastwards into Zululand. Natal itself was invaded by 

 a separate sheet having its origin out over what is now the Indian 

 Ocean, and apparently being a portion of the body that entered 

 Southern Madagascar, where this formation has also been recog- 

 nised. In the south the several ice-bodies coalesced, passed into 

 water, and floated, no doubt after the manner of the Great Barrier 

 Ice of Antarctica. 



The Ice Fields of Gondwanaland. 



The elucidation of the behaviour of this vast ice-field with a 

 thickness of several thousands of feet is one of the triumphs of 

 geological deduction, and the discovery is all the more remarkable 

 inasmuch as it implies that the northern boundary of the body 

 would have been situated about the twenty-first parallel, so that 

 the ice-field would have lain in what is now the temperate girdle 

 of the earth, far removed indeed from our present South Pole. 



The causes of this phenomenal refrigeration, the reality of 

 which is admitted by all authorities as indisputable, have so far 

 defied solution, and the problem has remained one of the great 

 puzzles of science, as well as one of the most fascinating. 



Turning our attention to South-Western Brazil and the 

 Northern Argentine it is remarkable to find a glacial conglomerate 

 of the same age as the Dwyka, derived as far as can be judged 

 from an ice-sheet having its origin out in the present Atlantic, off 

 the coast of Uruguay; to the north-west lay the ocean which it 

 entered. In the Falkland Islands the geology is identical with 

 that of the Cape, but the centre of origin of the ice is unknown. 



During the Carboniferous epoch Peninsular India was heavily 

 iced, the sheet moving northwards to discharge its debris into an 

 ocean where the Indus now flows. In Australia we find similar 

 occurrences, proving that a great ice-body radiated from some 

 centre to the south of that continent, moved northwards across 

 land in Victoria and South Australia, and terminated in an ocean 

 to the west, north, and east along a line some distance within the 

 present coast. Tasmania was also over-ridden, and possibly New 

 Zealand. South Victoria Land in the Antarctic certainly belonged 

 to this continent, but no data have yet been obtained to prove 

 whether it suffered glaciation, though probably it did. 



Although the several areas referred to formed parts of the 

 Carboniferous continent, only certain sections of each actually 

 experienced this glaciation. The northern region in Australia 

 escaped, most of Madagascar, all in Africa between latitudes 

 21° S. and about 15° N., and in South America the territory from 

 Paraguay to Venezuela. 



Gondwanaland. 



The foregoing represents Gondwanaland as generally conceived, 

 and, although its southern limits are problematical, it is obvious 

 that in size it would have rivalled Eurasia. With a restoration 



