4 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



has been built iip I will endeavor to make known to you ; and though. 

 my geological reminiscences do not extend far back, yet they embrace 

 some of the most important discoveries made on this continent. 



Though the discovery of Australia may date back to the middle 

 of the sixteenth century, yet it continued a terra incognita, at least 

 from a scientific point of view, until Cook, the Columbus of the 

 South, began, in 1770, the present ptiase of scientific expeditions; 

 and though geology reaped no gain, yet in botany was laid the 

 foundation of a knowledge of that marvellous and peculiar flora of 

 Australia through the labors of Banks and Solander, the com- 

 panions of Cook. Banks had collected at Sydney a clay which 

 was then considered a distinct mineral, and had been called 

 Sydnfijite or Sydneya. Its real nature was made known by 

 Hatchett* in 1798, and it was subsequently examined on the spot 

 by Depuch and Baillyf with similar residts. 



La Perouse, in a voyage round the world, anchored off Norfolk 

 Island in January, 1788, and described it as if surrounded by a 

 wall formed by lava that had flowed from the summit of the moun- 

 tain. The absence of any geological reference to Botany Bay, 

 which was next visited, may be attributed to the loss by assassina- 

 tion at Maouna, in the South Sea Islands, of that accomplished 

 mineralogist La Manon, one of the naturalists to the expedition, 

 on whom devolved the geological observations. 



Yakcouver,:}: who discovered King George Sound in 1791, de- 

 scribes the summit of Bald Head as covered with a coral struc- 

 ture, amongst which are many sea shells, and argues a modern 

 date of elevation. However faulty the interpretation of the nature 

 of the data may be, yet the deduction is sound, and it may be 

 claimed as the first recorded geological observation for Australia, 

 made one hundi-ed and two and a half years ago. 



D'Entrecasteux, in 1792-93, when in search of the ill-fated 

 La Perouse, examined the coastline from Cape Leuwin to Nuyt's 

 Archipelago, and visited Tasmania ; and although no geological 

 observations seem to have been made on the continent, yet a rich 

 harvest fell to the lot of La Billardiere, the botanist attached to 

 the expedition, who discovered coal near South Cape, and stated 

 that limestone existed on Bruni Island. 



Coal was discovered in New South Wales in 1797§, first to the 

 south of Sydney, and in the same year on the banks of the River 



* Phil. Trans. Key. Soc , London. t Pemn, Voy. Terres Australis, i., p. 443, 180". 



X Voyage South Seas, vol. i., p. 77. 18U1. 

 } Flinders, Vov. Terra Australis, vol. i., pp. civ-cv. ; Collins, Account of New South 

 Wales, 1798, p. 617. 



