57 



THE ISLANDS IN BASS' STEAITS 

 Br C. Gould, F.G.S. 



[^Eead 10th October, 1871. The paper loas illustrated hj a varietij 

 of choice and remarJcahle specimens.'] 



Visits to the islands in Bass' Straits are so rare that I feel 

 certain the members of this Society will accept a contribution 

 to the natural history of the group without objecting to its 

 brevity, and to its somewhat desultory character, induced by 

 limited opportunities of observation. 



Indeed the position and grouping of the islands render 

 them especially interesting, whether our attention is directed 

 to them as affecting their geological aspect — presenting as they 

 do the connecting link between this island and Australia, and 

 containing integral though distant parts of formations common 

 to both countries — or to their mineralogical importance from 

 their presenting a variety of mineral species not hitherto found 

 elsewhere within the colony, or if so only rarely, many of them 

 beautiful, some comparable in point of crystalline perfection 

 with their congeners in any part of the world, and others 

 possessing a substantial value of such importance as to 

 justify a hope that at some future day their discovery in 

 greater abundance may initiate novel and important mining 

 adventures. Again, the researches of the field naturalist are 

 eminently favoured in this locality by the harbour which its 

 seclusion offers to various cetacea, and the numerous species 

 of waterfowl now so rarely met with, or even almost extinct 

 upon the shores of our own island, while the natural shelter 

 of the outlying reefs and larger islands encourages the j)ro- 

 duction of various mollusca less abundant or unknown on our 

 own exposed coasts. 



My visits, made during the past summer, were principally 

 to the western side of Flinders and to Cape Barren, taking 

 incidentally the smaller islands lying off them ; but I had no 

 opportunity of visiting the eastern coast of Flinders, which is 

 an enterprise of some hazard from the heaviness of the seas 

 and absence of boat harbours, while my leisure did not permit 

 a visit to Clarke's Island, which is the southernmost of the 

 group. 



The small coloured plan which I lay on the table of the 

 Society will convey a fair general impression of the structure 

 of the islands in so far as the oldest rocks are concerned. 

 To express, with any accuracy, the distribution of the tertiary 

 deposits which overlie them, would require a much more 

 minute examination than I was able to afford ; their sinuous 



