344 REPORTS OF RESEARCH COMMITTEES. 



the Kalimnan seems to have em joyed ahnost as warm a climate 

 and copious rainfall as the late Miocene, seeing the abundance of 

 fish remains and several species of mollusca which connect it to 

 the Miocene fauna. The typical Kalimnan (Lower Pliocenei), 

 however, shows by its parallel forms of present-day aspect a con- 

 siderable cooling of the climate, but still with a fair amount of 

 rainfall concomitant with minor diastrophic changes, as evidenced 

 in beds of glauconite in the Mallee and Sorrento bores. 



With regard to the Pleistocene deposits of Victoria, in the 

 north-west, the Mallee bores proved tAiat the Werrikooian (Upper 

 Pliocefne) and the Pleistocene climates were probably characterized 

 bv a high rainfall, as the prevalence of estuarine shells in the 

 Mallee bores, at about 100 to 200 feet or more, see^ms to indicate. 



That the Early Pleistocene was a particularly moist period, 

 with large rivers draining into estuaries of considerable extent, 

 is also indicated in a paper. On a. SheU-hed Underlying Vol- 

 canic Tuff Near Warrnanihool, by C. J. Gabriel and the writer 

 (Proc. Eoy. Soc. Vict., vol. XXX., N.S. pt. 1, 1917, pp. 

 4-14), for on page 14 it is stated that " the evidence of the shells 

 beneath the Warrnambool tuffs shows the fauna to have a geo'- 

 Icgically recent aspect, but with varietal modifications cf the 

 species indicating different geographical features from that now 

 prevailing in the locality, a strong estuarine character antedating 

 thCi re-juvenation of the present river systeim This ancient 

 estuarine feature is further emphasized by the fact of the pre- 

 valence of a wide lava, flow of newer basalt extending down to' the 

 present shore-line at Port Fairy and beyond, pointing to the in- 

 filling of an ancient river delta which, originally of great extent, 

 embraced the Warrnambool-Portland area." Professor Howchin's 

 observations regarding the former direction of the main rivers 

 of South Australia and their large estuarine outlets tO' the sea, 

 as the Onkaparinga, compare closely with the Warrnambool-Port- 

 land System, here mentioned (see Howchin : Geography of South 

 Australia, including the Northern Territory, 1909, pp. 123-125). 



The desiccation of the country followed, as witnessed in the 

 Mallee cores by the accumulation cf blown and polished granite 

 sand and the fo'rmation of concretionary calcareous nodules, the 

 latter due to excessive evaporation and up-draught of sub-artesian 

 moisture; and these features seem toi persist to the present day. 



The later Tertiary climates here postulated from the faunal 

 characteristics have received strong corroboration from the work 

 of Prcf. T. Griffith Taylor in regard to climatic cycles and rain- 

 fall (Climatic Cycles and Evolution : Geographical Review, vol. 

 yill., No. 6, Dec. 1919, pp. 290-297). He says that if the 

 isotherms of Australia were all moved to the north, as if the tem- 

 perature of these parts fell 5 deg., the centre of aridity within 

 Australia would coincide with Darwin in winter, and the rest of 



