14 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



and labors in the field of Australian geology, the outcome of 

 five years' travel, commencing from his traverse of Gippsland in 

 1840, and embracing the survey of 7,000 miles. The rocks of 

 New South Wales he arranges in an ascending successional series, 

 and in this first attempt to construct a table of the stratified 

 Deposits of New South Wales he laid the foundation of strati- 

 graphical geology in Australia. His summary is as follows : — 

 First epoch — (a) Irruptive crystalline rocks, constituting the axis of 

 elevation, as granite, syenite, eurite, &c. (6) Stratified crystalline 

 Tocks as mica slate. Second epoch — Characterised by arenaceous, 

 calcareous, and argillaceous deposits, which rest on the former, and 

 in Australia contain the first record of organic life ; among the 

 stratified masses are intruded porphyrites, basalts. &.c. The 

 greater part of the Palaeozoic rocks in Australia examined 

 "by Strzelecki is the equ.ivalent of the " Carboniferous," though 

 others (particularly about Yass Plains) are anterior, and may pro- 

 bably be considered the equivalent of the Devonian System of 

 Europe. [This is the first recognition of a fossiliferous group older 

 than Carboniferous.] Third epoch — Includes the coal-series of the 

 Newcastle basin. Fourth epoch — Embraces gravel beds, elevated 

 beaches, osseous breccias ; alluvial deposits about Port Western 

 are included, also the variegated sandstones of the tableland of the 

 Blue Mountains ; '• above the last no other formation has yet been 

 found, and they constitute the highest beds in the geological series." 

 In this epoch are included deposits now known to be of older 

 Tertiary age, as the Eocene at Port Fairy and Table Cape, and the 

 Miocene at Lake King, Gippsland, " which contain Ostrea and 

 Anomia different from the existing species." Strzelecki's volume 

 is accompanied by a map, in which the areas occupied by each 

 epoch are indicated by colors, and this is the first attempt at geo- 

 logical mapping in Australia. The Palaeozoic corals and polyzoa are 

 described by Lonsdale, the plant remains and Palaeozoic mollusca 

 by Morris, and the Pliocene mollusca by G. B. Sowerb) . Morris 

 pointed out that the facies of the coal flora was remarkably dis- 

 tinguished from that of Europe and to have strong points of 

 similarity with that of Northern India and of the Yorkshire 

 Oolites. The doubt had thus early been expressed as to the 

 possibility of the Hunter River coals belonging to the Jurassic 

 system. 



Leichhakdt, Dr. Ludwig. — In 1844 this lamented traveller 

 started on his adventurous journey from Moreton Bay to Port 

 Essington, a distance of 3,000 miles. The expedition originated in 



