61 
NEW FACTS BEARING ON THE GLACIAL FEATURES 
OL ALL ETT’S Cove. 
By W. Howcuiy, F.G:S. 
[Read April 3, 1895. ] 
A scientific investigator in looking for one thing often unex- 
pectedly stumbles on another which proves of greater interest 
than the primary object of his search. Eighteen years ago Pro- 
fessor Tate went to Hallett’s Cove to look for shells. He was 
disappointed in the objects of his visit, but discovered the ice- 
polished surfaces on the cliffs which remain to this day the finest 
examples of their kind in any part cf Australia. The announce- 
ment then made of glacial action at sea level in the latitude of 
Adelaide was met with incredulity not only from the public, but 
also from many scientific men, who without seeing the evidences 
prejudged the conclusions from a distance. Competent judges, 
however, when taken over the ground, without exception, con- 
firmed the discoverer’s diagnosis; and the interest with which 
this locality has come to be regarded by the geological world has 
rapidly increased, and Hallett’s Cove must now be ranked as 
classic ground in Australian geology. 
The meeting of the Australian Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, in Adelaide in September, 1893, presented the 
opportunity for a large number of scientific men from the other 
colonies of verifying the evidences, and through the generosity of 
the President of the Association, what was called by Sir James 
Hector “the largest scientific excursion ever held in the Southern 
Hemisphere” made a pilgrimage to the spot. The evidence of 
ice action was taken by all present without a doubt and as over- 
whelming in its conclusiveness. There was the polished and 
grooved pavement extending at intervals for two miles along 
the top of the cliffs, and occurs alike on the basset edges of the 
purple shales as well as on the harder quartzites. There was also 
noted a limited quantity of morainic material, with scratched 
stones, resting on the glaciated platform, together with larger 
transported blocks at the southern end of the Cove. There was 
no difference of opinion on the main facts. The discussion among 
the geological experts was directed almost exclusively to the 
question of the age when this extensive glaciation occurred. Some 
defended the view that the glacial features did not pass under 
the Miocene escarpment, which at this point overlies the Archean 
