30 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



of Queensland," by Messrs. Jack and Etheridge, published within 

 the past twelve months. The issue of this work marks an event in 

 the history of geological progress in Australia. It stands unrivalled 

 for its rich stores of information, and for its methodical arrange- 

 ment, tracing, as it does, the various steps in the growth of our 

 knowledge, and giving credit to each previous observer who had 

 contributed to its history. The reports of isolated surveys are 

 pieced together, and the whole is illustrated by a large "geological 

 map, which has been compiled with some approach to accuracy." 

 The palseontological part is enriched with forty-four quarto plates 

 of fossils. 



4. SOUTH AND WEST AUSTRALIA. 



The establishment of the geological surveys of these colonies 

 came too late to render aid in the completion of the geological 

 history of Australia, and what has been accomplished by them is 

 local rather than general. 



The fovmdatJon of the University of Adelaide in 1875 gave me 

 the opportunity, as the occupant of the Chair of Natural History, 

 of contributing to the knowdedge of iiustralian Geology. In 1877 the 

 discovery of a few fossil remains in strata where they were previously 

 unknown revolutionised our ideas concerning the age of the crystal- 

 line rocks, which occupy an enormous extent and thickness in this 

 continent. In consequence of the recognition of the Cambrian age 

 of these fossils, the underlying unconformable metamorphic rocks 

 were relegated to the Archsean. 



The classification of the marine Tertiaries, after the method 

 employed by Sir Charles Lyell, has gradually been evolved, and 

 within the last three years four distinct populations have been 

 made out, the relation of the beds containing them have been 

 demonstrated, and the main divisions, corresponding with Eocene, 

 Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene, have been established. So 

 have been filled in the last remaining large gaps in the chronological 

 sequence of the Australian sedimentary rocks. 



Thus in Australia, as in other continental areas, there are de- 

 velopments of Azoic, Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cainozoic rocks ; and, 

 moreover, the geological sequence of the chief marine formations 

 are fairly well represented — from Archaean to Permo-Carboniferous, 

 from Trias to Cretaceous, and from Eocene to those deposits now in 

 process of accumulation. That there are gaps of considerable 

 extent in Eastern Australia is certainly true, but they owe their 

 existence to the prevalence of terrestrial conditions. These gaps 

 are partly filled by marine Jurassic beds in West Australia 



