00 Pfoceedinf/s of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



])rodigious quantities must be carried away by sub-glacial 

 streams. Dr. Wright (" Ice Age in North America") calcu- 

 lates that from the great Muir glacier in Alaska ovei- 33^ 

 million cubic yards of sediment is annually cairied away by 

 sub-glacial streams. Little, if any, of the sub-glacial material 

 can be carried away by icebergs — a few stones, })erh;ips, frozen 

 into the bottom of the bergs. The finer material carried 

 away b}^ streams from beneath these great glaciers must 

 inevitabh- be stratitied, and well stratified, as the quantity 

 of material brought down must vary considerably from 

 time to time. Even if much line matter weie carried by 

 icebergs, it would inevitabl}^ be re-assorted by the water ; 

 the stones, too, would assuredly show some trace of 

 arrangement. 



In the deposits we have been considering, the absence 

 of stratification and the total want of arrangement of the 

 included stones, are their chief and most striking cliaiacter- 

 istics. Then again, in the great mass of the sections we 

 have examined angular fragments are comparatively rare, 

 except as we have seen, where the till rests on the under- 

 Ivinsf rock. So here aoain, we have a strono- armament in 

 favour (jf the glacier theory. 



Further, these deposits are found up to a height of 1400 ft. 

 at Bailan ; so, to account for them en the iceberg theory, we 

 would require a submergence of at least 2000 ft. to allow 

 icebergs to float, and as icebergs can only transport material 

 from higher to lower levels, it is quite impossible to account 

 for the mingling of fragments of the underlying rock in the 

 overlying till, at an elevation not exceeding 800 ft. above 

 the sea. Besides, such a submergence would considerably 

 diminisli the area frcnn which the deposits could be derived, 

 and their extent indicates a large surface. Again, such a 

 submergence would tend to produce climatic conditions 

 which would be quite o[)posed to the production of glaciers, 

 even were the astronomical conditions favoural)le. It must 

 also be observed that, so far as we have seen, these deposits 

 are quite unfossiliferous. 



Mr. Dunn states that much of the rock material occurring 

 in the till is not known at ]n-esent to occur in situ on this 

 Continent anywhere near Victoria. Daintree remarks that 

 a granite occurs in the formation at Bacchus Marsh, which 

 \\t> had not observed south of Queensland. However, as he 

 has not described this granite, it would be difficult now ti> 

 identify it. We would reply to this that further search will 



