PHYSIOGRAPHY OP THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS. 359 



If in my address T have wandered away in some measure from 

 what may be considered the subject of geography, if at one 

 moment I have treated of early travel, at another of future 

 scientific research, at another of the conservation of water and 

 the irrigation of the soil, while at another time I have touched 

 upon the subject of Australian federation, it is because I consider 

 that the term geography covers a very wide area, and embraces or 

 is allied to so many questions of great importance to us, and in 

 which colonial history and colonial enterprise are connected, that 

 it was necessary or desirable that I should, on this occasion, treat 

 the subject from a purely scientific point of view. 



The following papers were read : — 



1.— EMIN BEY AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 



By Sir Edward Strickland, K.C.B., F.R.G.S., Treasurer of the 



Association. 



2.— THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE AUSTRALIAN 



ALPS. 



By James Stirling, F.G.S., F.L.S., Geological Survey of Victoria. 



\_Ab7~idged.^ 



TOPOG R A PH Y. 



The highest altitudes in Australia are to be found in the south- 

 east portion of the continent. On the Main Dividing Range 

 parallel to the south-east coast line, and on the lateral spurs pro- 

 ceeding from it, are the highest mountain peaks and most elevated 

 plateaux, embracing an area of unique interest to the student of 

 Physiography. 



Here are to be found climatic zones wherein to study important 

 meteorological phenomena ; the endemic vegetation is necessarily 

 varied, depending on such climatic conditions ; while in the 

 character and composition of the great rock masses of which the 

 mountains are built up we have in the words of an able writer* — 

 " An unrivalled field wherein to study the mutual relations of the 

 sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks." 



As a mountain system the Australian Alps are undoubtedly 

 older than the European, African, or Himalayan, f The lava flows 

 of the Tertiary period have not partaken of the folding process 

 which characterize the European Tertiary formations. Long 



* A. W. Howitt, Devonian Rocks of North Gippsland. Progress Report, Geol. Surv. Vic- 

 toria, Iso. 4, p. 75, 



t R. von Lendenfcld, Exploration of Victorian Alps. Gold-fields of Victoria, March, 

 1886, p, 71. 



