STRUCTURAL FEATURES COMMITTEE. 239 



seamed with granitic intrusions. The boundary between the eastern 

 region of post Pre-Cambrian contortion and injection appears to be 

 marked by a fairly well defined axis of very ancient gneissic rocks, 

 probably Archaean. These appear at intervals from Port Lincoln and 

 Yorke's Peninsula on the south to Cloncurry and the Argilla Mountains 

 in the north of Queensland. 



If the surmise is correct that this is the great tectonic axis of the 

 Continent and that it has been the barrier throughout geological time 

 which has caused the very marked diversity of fossil facies of Eastern 

 and Western Australia time and again within the limits of geological 

 history, its exact position, its character and its geological history are 

 well worthy of careful investigation. 



As an example of its efEect on life distribution may be instanced 

 the strong disharmony of the eastern and western faunas in Permo- 

 Carboniferous times and again in Upper Cretaceous time. 



I put forward this suggestion in the hope that it may induce 

 discussion on what may prove to be one of the fundamental facts of 

 Australian Geology. 



The General Council reappointed this Committee to record the 

 Structural Features in Australia, its members to be Professor E. AV. 

 Skeats, Professor P. Marshall, IV^r. E. F. Pittman, Mr. W. H. Twelve- 

 trees, Mr. W. Howchin, Mr. A. Gibb Maitland, Mr. L. K. Ward, Mr. B. 

 Ihmstan, Mr. E. Speight, Dr. T. S. Hall, Professor W. G. Woolnough, 

 Dr. H. I. Jensen, Mr. E. Stanley, Mr. H. Herman, Dr. D. Mawson. 

 Professor T. W. E. Da%dd (Secretary). 



(c) GLACIAL PHENOMENA COMMITTEE. 



{See Vol XIII, p. LVII.) 



1. — Report for New Zealand, Years 1911 and 1912,. 



{By R. Speight.) 



The principal problems bearing on New Zealand Glaciology which 

 have arisen since I furnished my last report are those which are 

 concerned with the reported signs of glaciation, noted by Professor 

 Park in the neighbourhood of Ruapehu, and in the province of Marl- 

 borough (Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. XLIII., 1911, and Geology of New 

 Zealand, 1910). In the latter work he records the discovery of deposits 

 eomposed of angular and semi-angular blocks of andesites in a matrix 

 of reddish clay, forming, in the Waimarino Forest, which lies to the 

 weBt of Ruapehu, groups of small hills resembling those seen in terminal 



