Account of Glacial Deposits of Bacchus Marsh. 65 



much more recent age than that represented by the upj3er 

 till at Bacchus Marsh. The piesence oferractics of basalt, 

 in "linear extension " along the valleys and on the slopes of 

 the Alps is sufficient to show this. Dr. Lendenfeldt 

 considered that this period of glaciation only terminated 

 between 2000 and 3000 years ago, but, as Professor Hutton 

 has shown, there is no evidence to sustain this. Professor 

 Hutton has expressed the opinion that there was no evidence 

 to indicate that the Southern Hemisphere had ever had a 

 glacial period. That glaciers had formerly existed in the 

 Australian Alps, he has explained on the hypothesis of a 

 local elevation of the Alps, to about 3000 feet above their 

 present level. Now this glaciation took place since Miocene 

 times, as is shown by the basaltic ei'ratics. Mr. Stirling has 

 assigned it to the Pleistocene Period. It is impossible that 

 it can be earlier, for if it were, the erractics would have long 

 ago disappeared from their positions on mountain sides and 

 spurs. 



During the Pliocene Period we have evidence, in the 

 distribution of marine gravels, of a submergence of nearly 

 1000 feet below the present level, and since then the land 

 has graduallj^ risen to its present condition (Muri-ay). In 

 his address to the Biological Section of the A.A.A.S., at 

 Hobart, Professor Spencer says : — " We must conclude from 

 the mammalian fauna, that there has been no absolute land 

 connection between South-east Australia and Tasmania 

 since practically the end of the Tertiary Period or early in 

 Pleistocene times, as otherwise it would be impossible to 

 account for the absence, not only of the dingo, but of the 

 large and specialised diprotodont fauna, of which the 

 Pleistocene Period saw the rise and fall upon the mainland." 

 From the evidence supplied by raised beaches, and by the 

 great depth to which many of our river channels have been 

 cut, it is apparent that the land has been gradually rising 

 for a considerable period. It is thus pretty certain that, 

 since the beginning of Pleistocene times, the land surface has 

 never stood higher, relatively to the sea, than it does now, 

 and in Pliocene times, as we have seen, there was a 

 submergence of nearly 1000 feet below the present level. 



If denudation has been the means of i^educing the height 

 of our Alpine regions by about 3000 feet since the last 

 glaciation took place, then it would be quite impossible for 

 lines of erratic boulders and perched blocks on mountain 

 spurs to be preserved. Many of these, according to Mr. 



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