O INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



on this survey were reported, on by Dr. Fitton* in 1825, but nothing 

 was done beyond their mere enumeration and the indication of 

 their agreement with those of the same denomination from other 

 parts of the world, no attempt having been made to chronologically 

 arrange them. Others collected by Brown during his sojourn in 

 New South Wales Avere reported on by Dean Buckland in 1821, 

 hereafter referred to. 



Contemporaneous with the marine survey by Flinders was that 

 by the French, under Baudin, who sailed along the outside of the 

 islands which fringe a great extent of the north-west and south 

 coasts, but who seldom visited any part of the mainland. The 

 scientific equipment of this expedition is unrivalled in the annals 

 of Australian exploration. To Depuch and Bailly were entrusted 

 the mineralogical and geological researches. The former left the 

 ship at Sydney to return to Europe, but he died at Mauritius, and 

 his manuscripts, which he had taken with him, and which were to 

 serve for a geological history of New Holland, Avere irrecoverably 

 lost. 



Peron was the senior zoologist and the author of the narrative 

 of the expedition!, the first volume of which was published in 1807; 

 but the author died in 1810, before the aijpearance of the second 

 volume in 1816, which was edited by his companion, Freycinet. 

 His account of the physiography and geology of the places visited 

 is not only graphic, but rich in details ; he closely investigated the 

 nature and origin of the .^olian calciferous sandstones, and fully 

 recognised their relationship to the blown sand of the dunes. 

 This dominant feature of the southern shores of Australia is stated 

 by him to be reproduced on the west and north-west coast. The 

 entombed calcified shapes of branches and stems of trees were 

 correctly recognised, though Vancouver and Flinders had erro- 

 neously considered them as coral reefs. He riglitly referred the 

 fundamental rocks of Kanii^aroo and King Islands to different kinds 

 of 231-imitive schists, and the superimposed fossiliferous limestone 

 at the former place was correctly observed, though not attributed to 

 any particidar epoch. The occurrence of corals and marine shells 

 of recent appearance at considerable elevations on the coast was 

 justly regarded by him as demonstrating the "former abode of 

 the sea" above the land, and very naturally suggested an inquiry 

 as to the nature of the revolutions to which this change of situation 

 is to be ascribed. The diorite of Depuch Island is described as 



• Proc. Geol. Soc, London. 

 + Voyage de Decouveite aux Terres Australes Historique, 2 vols. 



