PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS. 385 



That the warmth-loving plants of the Miocene and early Pliocene 

 periods were supplanted in Post-Miocene times by the present 

 semi-arctic flora of the Australian Alps, is evident enough ; while 

 the wide-spread dispersion of the boulder deposits, the rounded 

 contours of the crystalline rocks, and the undulatory outlines of 

 the foot-hills in many of the valleys, all bespeak agencies distinct 

 from ordinary fiuvatile action ; and, in the author's opinion, point 

 very distinctly to glacier action. Briefly the evidences may be 

 summed up as follows : — 



Erratics in the Mitta Mitta and the Kiewa Valleys, huge blocks 

 weighing many tons ;* smoothed surfaces on the Cobberas 

 Mountains and Mount Bogong;t moi'ainics at the base of the 

 latter on the Mountain Creek Valley ;X eroded lake basins. Dry 

 Hill, Hermomugee Swamp ; Omeo lake basin ; morainic lake. 

 Mount Wellington ;§ smoothed and scratched surfaces on Mount 

 Kosciusko. 1 1 The interest appertaining to this question is no 

 doubt great, and although the fact of glacier action can, I think, 

 be satisfactorily established in the Australian Alps, yet further 

 evidence is desirable as to the synchronism of the glacier period 

 in Australia, with that of the glacial epoch in the Northern 

 Hemisphere. That the glacier action was wide-spread over South- 

 east Australia I have no doubt, and without entering into a 

 discussion as to the causes of such glacier action, it seems to me 

 difficult to resist the conviction that, considering the uniformity 

 of natural operations all over the globe during past time, Aus- 

 tralia was not exempt from the refrigeration which in the 

 Northern Hemisphere culminated in a glacial epoch. The geo- 

 logical evidences are, I think, accumulating in favour of the view 

 that glacier action has played a very important part during 

 Mesozoic and Paheozoic time in the distribution of boulder deposits 

 and the abrasion of rock surfaces. Mr. Dunn, F.G.S , has recently 

 found some well-marked striated boulders in the Older Tertiary 

 conglomerates in the Beechworth district, which may be seen at 

 the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, while the author has found 

 similarly striated boulders in the Upper Silurian conglomerates of 

 the Gibbo River. 



* sterling, Notes on the Evidences of Glacier Action in the Australian Alps. Trans. R. 

 Soc. Victoria. 



t Sterlinj;, Some Further Evidences of Glacier Action in the Australian Alps. Proc. 

 Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales. 



t Von Lendenfeld and Sterling, Ascent Of Mount Bogon<j. Reports, Mining Registrars 

 Victoria, March, 1887. 



§ A. W. Howitt, in Australasian. 



II Von Lendeneld, The Glacial Epoch in Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales. 



