128 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



the nature of the rock, but the general form and surface is 

 typical of roches moiitonnees — so typical, in fact, as to render a 

 detailed description unnecessary. 



In some places recent soil and grass have covered these polished 

 surfaces, but enough is exposed to show that there exists a 

 considerable area of roches moutofmees. In other spots, where 

 the surface is quite bare, erratics of various sizes rest immediately 

 on the polished i-ock. 



Of morainic matter there is abundance. The surface of the 

 country round the lower end of the lake, extending for about a 

 mile from the lake, is strewn with rocks of all sizes and shapes 

 and in all positions. Many are large, being some tons in weight, 

 while others are small or of only moderate size. They are com- 

 posed ahiiost exclusively of greenstone, and it may be mentioned 

 that it is at times difficult, if not impossible, to determine the 

 line of demarcation between the moraines and the shattered 

 columns of gi'eenstone which have gravitated down the valley. 

 Quartzites also occur in the moraine. 



Mr. Johnston, in a paper read before the Royal Society of 

 Tasmania last year, remarks that " the romantic . . . valley 

 of Lake Dixon is, par excellence, the ideal of a perfect glacier 

 valley. No one, however ignorant of glacial action, could in 

 this neighbourhood gaze upon those beautiful, scooped, or rather 

 abraded, lakes or tarns, . . . the snow-white, polished, 

 billowy, cascade-like roches moiitontiees, composed of quartzites, on 

 the upper margin of Lake Dixon, together with the tuml)led 

 moraines and large erratic on the lower banks — at a level of 

 about 2000 feet — without being impressed with the idea that its 

 singularly characteristic features nmst have been produced by 

 the slow rasping flow of an ancient river of ice." 



In addition to the smoothed rocks, we discovered, clinging to 

 to these surfaces, and principally in the hollows, part of the 

 former ground moraine. This consisted of an intensely hard 

 matrix of clay, in wliich were embedded and cemented together 

 pebbles and stones of various kinds and sizes, composed of schists, 

 slates, quartzites, greenstone, and other varieties. No attempt 

 at arrangement is discernable, and one distinguishing feature is 

 the occurrence on many of the included stones of scores and 

 stria?. These striations are numerous and well-marked, which. 



