INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 33 



same observer in 1890'^' and laterf, in a beautifully illustrated 

 memoir on the conglomerates at Wild Duck Creek, near Heathcote, 

 supplies all the characteristics of glaciated rock surfaces and ice- 

 scratched erratics ; whilst still later similar appearances have 

 been recognised in the conglomerates at Bacchus Marsh by Mr. 

 G. Sweet.j 



The recognition of climatic zones in the Permo-Carboniferous 

 and Hawkesbury Sandstone series permits, in conjunction with the 

 distribution of the plant remains, the correlation of distant areas 

 on the basis of contemporaneity. Whether or not the Indian geolo- 

 gists § have pushed too far the value of such a time measure by its 

 synchronous application to both hemispheres, I think we may 

 safely employ it in the classification of our deposits, even if we do 

 not accept a contemporaneous origin fcr the sequence of the 

 sedimentary formations in South Africa between the Lower 

 Carboniferous and the Uitenhage series. 



IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD. 



The difFusedness in the geographic distribution of the geological 

 systems robs the field geologist of the means to determine the re- 

 lationship that one set of beds has to another. Hitherto geological 

 age has largely been determined by fossiliferous evidence, but 

 deduciions drawn therefrom maybe subject to modification when the 

 stratigraphical sequence has been ascertained. Paleeontology is 

 the handmaiden to stratigraphical geology, and though it may- 

 hold the key to the problems of local and comparative stratigraphy, 

 yet it cannot afford results of permanent value when applied to 

 widely separated areas. These methods of determination, when 

 separately employed, gave discordant results in the case of the 

 Newcastle Coal-series, and a controversy of long duration waged 

 between the respective adherents of the opposite opinions enter- 

 tained. 



On the other hand, palaeontology has usefully lent her aid by 

 directing closer attention to stratigi-fiphical details and has thus 

 led up to the discovery of a break in the succession of deposits 

 co-ordinate with the palseontological one ; in this way, the separa- 

 tion of the Miocene from the Eocene on stratigraphical features 

 has been attained. 



• Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sc, vol. ii., p. 452. t Report Mining: Department, Vict., 1892. 



i Victorian Naturalist, 1S92, p. 130. 



(SDr. Oldham, Mem. Geol. Surv., Inoia. in., p. 209, 1863, Ur. H. F. Blandt'ord, Quart. 



Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxxi., p. S19, 1875. Dr. Feistmautel, Ucc. Geol Surv., India, xiii., 



p. 250, 1881'. Dr. Waagen, Rec. Geol. Surv , India, xix., p. 22, 1886. Mn R. D. Oldham, 



Rec. Geol. Surv., India, xix., p. 43, 1886. 



C 



