4, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



as I have read a hundred volumes to produce a very modest 

 pamphlet. Thus what I have done looks small when I recall the 

 continuousness of the effort that accomplished it ; but in making 

 this estimate of results I do not overlook the effects of my exertions 

 on myself. 



The history of the progress of geology in Australia is inti- 

 mately associated with that of its geographical discovery and of its 

 advancement in scientific culture. It will constitute a chapter in 

 the early history of modern Australia, and I venture to give some 

 connected view of it, which, however bad it may be, is better 

 than no view at all. Moreover, there are associated with the 

 subject personal histories which should be recorded whilst the 

 knowledge of them is still within our memory. And altho<igh it 

 is my special object to depict actual culminating results, without 

 any extended notice of the facts and events which may have led up 

 to them, yet to a certain extent a knowledge of such facts and 

 events is essential to their proper appreciation, and may be pro- 

 ductive of increased interest to mv audience. 



Just prior to the close of the last century the controversy between 

 the Wernerian and Huttonian schools, or those of the Vulcanists 

 and Neptunists, relating to the origin of the crust of the earth, was 

 at its height. The Huttonian theory, which prevailed, recognises 

 that the strata of the present land surfaces were formed out of the 

 waste of pre-existing continents, and that the same forces are still 

 active. The characteristic feature of Hutton's theory is the 

 exclusion of all causes not recognised as belonging to the present 

 order of nature. 



With the opening of the present centru-y a new school arose, 

 which laid the foundation of modern geology. Three men were 

 largely concerned in this achievement — Cuvier, Lamarck, and 

 William Smith. The two former, in France, had all the powers 

 which great talent, education, and station could give, whilst 

 the last was an English land surveyor without culture or 

 influence. Cuvier laid the foundation of comparative osteology, 

 recent and fossil ; Lamarck, that of invertebrate palaeontology ; 

 whilst Smith established the fundamental principles of strati- 

 graphical palfeontology, viz.. the superposition of stratified rocks 

 and the succession of life in time. 



" The growing importance of the natural history of organic 

 remains may be pointed out," writes Sir Charles Lyell. " as the 

 characteristic feature of the progress of geological science during 

 the present century." 



