eee 
200 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 
Cambrian to as high as Permian. Professor J. W. Gregory has 
described beds of possible glacial origin, in pre-Carboniferous 
rocks in Spitzbergen. These supposed glacial beds contain 
blocks more or less subangular, many feet in diameter, imbedded 
in a fine base. No glacial grooves nor striz were observed on 
these blocks. Rocks of somewhat similar character occur on 
the Lena River, in Siberia, on a pre-Carboniferous horizon, and 
on the Mackenzie River, in North America, on a horizon that is 
perhaps Cambrian. With the exception, however, of the 
Varanger Fiord beds, no glacial markings have been observed on 
the included blocks of any of these ancient beds, supposed to be 
Cambrian in age, and to be of glacial origin. Even in the 
case of the Varanger Fiord, the geological age, though probably 
Cambrian, is still in doubt. What makes Mr. Howchin’s dis- 
covery of such value is that (1) the evidence of the glacial char- 
acter of the deposit is indisputable, great numbers of the included 
boulders, especially in the Petersburg (S. Australia) district, 
showing well-preserved glacial strie, as clear and sharp in some 
cases as those of well-glaciated pebbles from Pleistocene or 
Recent boulder clays; and (2) the age of the glacial beds is capable 
of being definitely ascertained. They cannot, I think, be newer 
than Ordovician, and may be as old as Algonkian. Mr. Howchin 
is of opinion that they will probably be found to underlie the 
Archeocyathine limestones, and, therefore, to belong to a horizon 
low down in the Lower Cambrian; but further studies in the field 
are necessary before the exact stratigraphical relations of the 
. beds‘can be determined. The intercalation of limestones with 
and 
” 
> 
42 contain? v 
_ “-thegkatial beds at the Sturt River is a novel and interesting 
rr featyre.. .2The Tapley’s Hill laminated calcareous shales, which 
immeédiately:overlie the glacial series, are perhaps marine, as they 
pp humerous casts of what are probably radiolarian 
shells. If tWis surmise is correct, the ice in Cambrian (?) time 
- “came downto sea-level, in some portion of the Southern Hemi- 
sphere, pefkdps even in South Australia itself. As regards the 
irection im; which the ice moved, although no striated pave- 
- ment has‘ yet been found, yet from the discovery by Mr. How- 
chin..6f }éulders of a beautiful graphic granite at Petersburg 
(S.A.}which occurs in situ at Winulta (?) Creek, about 16 miles 
“worth of Ardrossan, in Yorke’s Peninsula, over 120 miles to the 
south, it is probable that in Cambrian, as in Permo-Carboniferous 
time, the ice in South Australia moved from south to north. It 
is, however, as yet premature to generalise. This important 
discovery by Mr. Howchin was not fortuitous, but was the result 
of years of patient toil under trying conditions, and, therefore, 
all the more credit is due to the discoverer. 
III.—West AvsTRALIA. 
(B.) Permo-Carboniferous. 
The next discovery is that by Mr. A. Gibb Mait- 
land, F.G.S., Government Geologist of West Australia, 
of extensive boulder-beds in the Marine Permo- 
Carboniferous rocks of West Australia. The illus 
trations Mr. Maitland has already published of striated 
boulders from these beds prove their glacial origin most con- 
clusively. The following provisional description of these 
