LXXXIV PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



15 deg. F. (7 deg. — 8 deg. C.) colder tlian at present. The im- 

 portant discovery of the existence of an intense and extensive 

 glaciation in Cambrian time revealed itself, after many years of 

 indefatigable toil, to the distinguished South Australian geologist, 

 whom it has been the privilege of our association to honour with 

 the award of the Mueller medal, Mr. Walter Howchin. May I 

 express on behalf of us all the heartfelt wish that he may be 

 spared many years of active life to further enrich geological science 

 with his discoveries. These glacial beds are presumably on about 

 the same horizon as tho«e described by Mr. Bailey Willis, near 

 the head of navigation of the Yang-Tse, in China. 



Lately Professor Coleman, of Toronto, has discovered evidence 

 of a very extensive glaciation in the Huronian beds of Canada, to 

 the east of the great lakes, about 750,000 square miles of the 

 earth's surface in that neighbourhood being then under ice. So 

 far we have not yet discovered traces of a glaciation of this age 

 in Australasia. Then, of course, there is the well known evidence 

 of the Pleistocene, and possibly in part early Pliocene, glaciation 

 of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres demanding a fall 

 in temperature in the Southern Hemisphere of about 10 deg. F. 



In regard to palaeontological evidence of Cainozoic change of 

 climate in Australia, I am indebted to Mr. Charles Hedley, of 

 the Australia^ Museum, Sydney, for the information that the 

 genus Pyrula at present has its southern limit along the east 

 coast of Australia, at Newcastle. It is met with fossil in the 

 so-called Eocene (possibly Oligocene or even Lower Miocene) beds 

 of Table Cape, in Tasmania, some 600 miles south of its present 

 southern limit on the East Australian coast. 



Mr. F. Chapman, Palaeontologist to the National Museum, Mel- 

 bourne, has kindly furnished me with the following notes: — 



" The Janjukian (Miocene) climate (sub-tropical to warm- 

 temperate). — Although many of the genera and even species 

 of the Miocene Victorian fauna are still living, the general 

 aspect is that of a much warmer climate than at present found 

 in Southern Australia. There is abundant proof of this in 

 the fact that the Janjukian types of mollusca must now be 

 looked for in the Queensland coast fauna, and still farther 

 northward . 



The abundance of large Volutes, as well as the occurrence 

 of the genera Harpa, Phos, Ancilla, and Cucullcea, with many 

 others, are strongly indicative of warmer coast-lines, some 

 being peculiarly Indo-Pacific generic types. Specifically many 

 of the fossils are closely related to Miocene forms found in 

 in the Vienna basin, a deposit whose shells clearly indicate 

 warm temperate to sub-tropical conditions. The Lepidocyclina 

 of Batesford indicates a warm temperate sea, such as pre- 

 vailed in the Tethys or Miocene mediterranean. 



