6-i Proceedings of the Royal Sociefi/ of Vicfoi-ia. 



in the locality, yet we have never found a. trace of any 

 volcanic material in the till. The same reasoning applies as 

 to its rehxtion to the Miocene leaf-beds that are well 

 developed in the district. These beds consist for the most 

 part of hard clay-ironstone, in which leaf and plant impres- 

 sions are very numerous, and as a rule exceedingly well 

 preserved. As we have not found any fragments in the 

 till that in any way resemble the material of these beds, it 

 seems highly probable that the upper till is pre-Miocene. 



In Europe, we have evidence of glaciation in Eocene 

 times. In the " Flysch" of Switzerland, huge erratics 

 occur. One of these measured 105 ft. in length, 90 ft. in 

 breadth, and 45 ft. in height (Croll, " Climate and Time," 

 p. 305). Although the Eocene fossils, both in Europe and 

 Australia, indicate a mild climate, yet, as has been pointed 

 out by Croll and other eminent authoiities, the life of a 

 glacial epoch would be characterised b}- negative conditions. 

 As it is of the very essence of the astronomical theory of 

 ice-ages that glacial alternate with genial epochs, it is only 

 to be expected that the life of the genial epochs would be 

 the more likely to be preserved. So it is possible that out 

 upper till is Eocene ; this, however, we merely throw our 

 as a suggestion, in the absence of any furtiier evidence a.t 

 present. Considering the great amount of erosion that took 

 place in Upper Mesozoic and early Tertiary times, it seems 

 improbable that this deposit is earlier than Eocene. 



Mr. Stirling and Dr. Lendenfeldt have described undoubted 

 evidences of glaciation in the Australian A1])S. These 

 gentlemen found glaciated surfaces on Mt. Cobberas at 

 elevations between 6000 ft. and 4000 ft. above the sea, on 

 Mt. Pilot, and on Mt. Kosciusco. Erratics of huge basaltic 

 boulders occur in " linear extension for miles " in the Reewa 

 River and Snowy Creek valle3^s, the nearest basaltic outliers 

 being twenty miles away. Perched blocks of hornblende 

 porphyrite occur on " crests of spurs and sidelings" in a 

 regulai- descending series from near the summit of Mt. 

 3ogong towards the Reewa valley, many of them resting 

 on smoothed surfaces of pegmatite. Moraines occur at the 

 base of Mt. Bogong, at 1000 ft. above sea level. Similar 

 evidences of former glaciation have also been described 

 by Mr. Stirling as occurring in the Livingstone valley, 

 Parslow's Plains, and elsewhere in our Alpine regions. 



There would seem to be no doubt that the glaciation 

 iudicated by these evidences in the Australian Alps is of 



