president's address — SECTION c. 157 



rest upon the Devonian volcanic plateau. On the Behn River, just 

 above what is known as the " Gorge," Dr. Jack noted a dome or 

 " Puy " of basalt, which apparently formed the focus from which 

 some of these lavas issued. 



At Bunbury, and one or two points on the coast round the south- 

 west corner of the State, bedded columnar basalts occur. Over large 

 areas and far into the interior, numerous volcanic ejectments, in the 

 form of obsidian bombs, occur, and were probably derived from vol- 

 canoes of which no trace has yet been found : it is quite possible they 

 may owe their origin to that volcanic region which skirts the northern 

 coast of Australia. 



The geological age of these basaltic lavas, in the present state of 

 our knowledge, is a matter for inference only, but if we assume that 

 they all belong to one period, they must be set down as Tertiary. 



Some of the basic intrusive dykes, which are also widely dis- 

 tributed in the north-west, and form such pronounced features in the 

 scenery, belong to a later period than the volcanic eruptions of Nulla- 

 gine (Devonian) times, for many cases have been noticed in which they 

 traverse the NuUagine beds for many miles. Since the NuUagine 

 volcanic fires became extinct, Western Australia appears to have 

 known no outbreak of igneous activity until pretty well Tertiary times. 



The history of volcanic action in Western Australia is thus the 

 history of Pre-Cambrian, Devonian, and the Tertiary periods. 



It is hardly within the scope of a single address to consider the 

 whole question of the geology of Western Australia. My object has 

 been to point out what light has been thrown thereon through recent 

 investigations, by merely touching the fringe of the subject, and my 

 task has now been completed. In the fulfilment of the task I have 

 endeavored to inflict, to the full, that punishment which, by the irony 

 of fate, seems to be the recognised method by which a president con- 

 veys his appreciation of being made the recipient of one of the highest 

 honors which his scientific brethren have within their power to bestow. 

 Whether or not I anticipate your indorsement of, or disagreement 

 with, the verdict that the " punishment fits the crime," I know 

 that I am voicing your feelings when I say that during our efforts 

 to wrest from mother earth those secrets which are graven in mystic 

 characters on her face, we geologists, by merely wandering over the 

 surface, exchanging the genial sunlight for the feeble flicker of the 

 miner's candle, peering down the tube of the petrological microscope, 

 calling to our aid the delicate chemical balance, or poring over the 

 " Medals of Creation " in the seclusion of the museum cabinet, re- 

 echo the sentiments of one of Germany's greatest poets and thinkers : 

 Oh Wiinderschon ist Gottes Erde, 

 Und Schon auf Ihr ein Mensch zu sein. 



