lo8 Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. rvol"^xxxiil 



As a preface to his remarks, which were well illustrated by 

 lantern slides, the lecturer said he felt somewhat diffident in 

 addressing the Club respecting an area wherein it would seem 

 many of its members had spent a good deal of their leisure 

 time, and concerning which one had to go to the pages of the 

 Naturalist for information. 



The area under review, constituting as it did a fifth part of 

 the State, was till comparatively recent times a "No Man's 

 Land." Differing materially in its fauna and vegetation, and 

 in its physical features and soil conditions, from the better- 

 known and more favoured portions of Victoria, it had been 

 neglected by the agriculturist and only tentatively utilized by 

 the pastoralist during the winter and spring months. Some 

 eight years ago the Government of the day undertook the 

 settlement of the interior portion of the Mallee scrub, with the 

 result that there are now 500,000 acres out of ij millions 

 settled under cultivation, and this season not less than 2,000,000 

 bags of wheat will be garnered from this one-time supposed 

 inhospitable wilderness. The scheme is still being vigorously 

 proceeded with, and in a very short time still larger areas of 

 incomparable wheat-growing country will be made available 

 to settlers on advantageous terms. 



In dealing with the physical and geological features of the 

 Victorian Mallee, the speaker stated that it is comprised for 

 the most part of an elevated plateau of lacustrine origin, from 

 200 to 300 feet above the bed of the ^lurray, and, although 

 untouched by water forces since its formation in Tertiary times, 

 this low-relief table-land had been singularly diversified by 

 a^olian agencies, combined with a notable folding or corrugating 

 on an exceptionally large scale. Numerous salt-pans or lakes 

 of large extent existed, and a recurring series of parallel sand' 

 ridges, having an elevation of not more than 30 feet, and an 

 E.-W. direction, were met with over the greater part. These 

 were intersected by ridges of somewhat lower relief, which 

 followed approximately the folds of the older rocks, but were 

 as many miles apart as the aeolian sand-ridges were chains. 

 In past ages this area would seem to have been the bed of a 

 gulf or embayment of the sea that now laves our southern 

 coast line, and that in this expanse of waters, trending north 

 from the then main divide, during Middle Tertiary times, were 

 laid down the sediments which, though practically untouched, 

 are now contributing indirectly a yearly-increasing revenue to 

 the State. 



Referring to the artesian water supply of this and the 

 adjacent 'areas of New South Wales and South Australia, Mr. 

 Kenyon said that a keen and at times acrimonious controversy 

 has taken place respecting the origin of the artesian water and 



