170 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Permian. 

 Carboniferous. 

 Devonian. 

 Upper Silurian. 

 Lower Silurian. 



At this stage the question might be reasonably asked, is there 

 any necessity for such confusion of terms 1 Surely something can 

 be done by this Association to bring about more uniformity, 

 however tentative, in the use of our time scale. We look up 

 various works, papers, and official reports of the various colonies, 

 and from such, we find it absolutely impossible to correlate with 

 any degree of safety even the deposits immediately on opposite 

 sides of the River Murray, let alone the deposits at a somewhat 

 greater distance apart. This appears to be hardly the state of 

 affairs likely to tend to a very permanent advancement of our 

 knowledge of Australian Geology, and that, I take it, should be 

 one of the cares of this section of the Association. 



In speaking of the English Record, Sir A. Geikie remarks^ 

 "The nomenclature adopted for these subdivisions bears witness 

 to the rapid growth of geology. It is a patchwork in which no 

 uniform system or language has been adhered to, but where the 

 influences by which the progress of the science has been moulded, 

 may be distinctly traced." The same authority, as already quoted 

 in the present paper, states that it is generally admitted that the 

 names best adapted for general use are those taken from the 

 region where a formation or group of rocks is typically developed. 



Is there nothing typical in Australia ? Why is there such a 

 strong tendency towards the use of the British terms, even after 

 it has been proved that the colonial representatives are essentially 

 different in a great many respects. The endeavour to bring this 

 out is apparently shown in the additional introduction of the 

 composite terms already referred to, but surely some local name 

 would meet the present requirements better, until sufficient 

 detailed knowledge of the deposits has been obtained to enable 

 an appropriate general-term to be chosen of local significance. 



1 Text-Book of Geology, 3rd ed., 1893, p. 679. 



