40 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



it is not improbable that some of them may have been permanent 

 throughout or for a greater part of that long interval, no marsupials 

 as old as those of Europe and North America have yet been found ; 

 neither its coaly strata nor its ancient lake basins have yielded any 

 of the higher types of fluviatile or terrestrial vertebrates. Indeed, 

 the only instance of a fossil representative of the marsupialia, 

 older than Pliocene in the Australian area, is that of a diprotodon- 

 toid in the Eocene beds at Table Cape, Tasmania, whereas we 

 must look for a polyprotodontoid as the early ancestor of the class. 

 Recent researches point to South America as the area from which 

 the Australian marsupial fauna has probably been derived, especially 

 as that country possesses in its Eocene marsupial fauna close alliances 

 with certain existing polyprotodon-types in Australia, Intimately 

 connected with the origin and distribution of life in Australia is the 

 geological history of its jiast and present configuration, more par- 

 ticularly that of the interior. 



PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE INTERIOR. 



The observations of some of the earlier explorers gave rise to 

 speculations as to the physical character of the interior, and when 

 the facts became known they in turn served as a basis for certain 

 hypotheses respecting the physiographic features of Australia at 

 various past periods in relation to the distribution of its fauna and 

 flora. The progress of our knowledge in these matters is worth 

 relating, inasmuch as undue credit has been given tf) Alfred 

 Wallace as the originator of a geological causation affecting the 

 geographic distribution of our plants and animals. 



Vancouvek, 1791, writes: — " The principal part of this country 

 appeared to be coral, and it would seem that its elevation above the 

 ocean is of modern date, coral being found on the highest hills we 

 ascended, particularly on the summit of Bald Head. Here the 

 coral was entirely in its original state. In these fields of coral 

 sea-shells were in great abundance."* Flinders gives the upper 

 limit of the coral field at 400ft. f Peron regrets not having 

 investigated the nature of the evidences, and it remained to 

 Darwin ^ to rightly interpret the phenomena — thus, the corals 

 become calcified branches of trees and the seashells are identified 

 with a living land snail fBulhnus meloj. 



Flinders§, judging from the character and appearance of the 

 coast along the Great Australian Bight, concluded that this 



* Voy. of Discovery, vol. i., pp. 165-66. 1801. + Voy. Terr. Aust., vol. i., p. 97. 



t Volcanic Observations, 2nd edit. ; Jour, of a Naturalist, 2nd edit., p. 450. 



5 Op. cit., vol, I., p. 93. 



