CLIMATIC VAKTATIONS GREGORY. 353 



in Australasia can thus be easily explained ; for the evidence, so far, 

 appears to be only convincing in localities either on the edge of the 

 antarctic regions or in local areas where the meteorological conditions 

 are unusual. New Zealand is often quoted as having been glaciated, 

 either in the Pleistocene or at the same time as the glaciation of 

 Europe. But it should be remembered that there is no evidence yet 

 of any glaciation in the North Island of New Zealand, and the 

 former range of the glaciers in the South Island has been consid- 

 erably exaggerated. On the western slope of the South Island gla- 

 ciers in latitude 43° 20' S. still come down to the level of GOO feet 

 above the sea ; and it is along that coast with its intense rainfall that 

 the former ice extension is most clearly shown. In Tasmania the 

 Pleistocene glaciation resulted from a heavy snowfall along the 

 western edge of the Central Plateau, and the low moraines yet proved, 

 occur only in the valleys leading down to the western coasts; but on 

 the mainland of Australia the evidence of former glaciation is very 

 scanty. Its existence has been finally established by the work of 

 David and Pittman, on Kosciusko ; but the numerous cases of Pleisto- 

 cene glaciation that have been asserted in Victoria can not be main- 

 tained. I have visited all but two, and saw no evidence of glacial 

 action in any of them ; and the evidence relied on in both the places 

 I have not seen has been described by others as explicable by non- 

 glacial agencies. 



The Permian or Carboniferous glaciations of South Africa, India, 

 and Australia being in low latitudes and ranging down to sea level in 

 New South Wales and in the Salt Range appears at first sight to be 

 the most difficult problem in paleometeorology. But the question is 

 simplified b}'^ the following considerations : 



1. The geographical conditions of the areas concerned were very 

 different from those of the present day. 



2. The three best-known glacial centers occurred on the borders of 

 the old continent of Gondwana Land, farthest from the equator, and 

 they were probably all near mountainous country, facing seas open 

 to the colder zones. 



3. The only cases where the glacial deposits reached the sea were 

 in the areas farthest from the Tropics, and probably most exposed to 

 cold winds. 



4. Icebergs occasionally now reach almost to the Tropics; thus in 

 April, 1894, one was seen in the South Atlantic in latitude 26° 30' S. 



5. The glacial deposits appear to have been absent from the more 

 tropical parts of Gondwana Land, as they disappear toward the north 

 in both Australia and in South Africa. 



Both in Australia and South Africa the glaciation occurred in 

 areas where mountains existed near the sea. In southeastern Aus- 

 tralia there is ample evidence that a wide Upper Paleozoic sea lay to 



