67 
of any age between these geological landmarks. But the time 
limitations are here so enormously distant from each other that 
they serve little purpose in fixing the date of the intermediate 
deposits. We can only fall back on analogies, and establish a 
synchronism, if possible, with the glacial deposits of other 
localities that offer the nearest resemblances to the beds in ques- 
tion. As the glaciation must have taken place before the 
Miocene beds were deposited, it is out of the question to refer 
this refrigeration of the Australian climate to the so-called 
Glacial Period of the Northern Hemisphere, which took place in 
Post-Tertiary times. In conversation with Sir James Hector, on 
the occasion of his visit to the spot, he suggested the possibility 
of the glaciation being of Cretaceous age, and stated that there 
were enormous glacial deposits of this age in New Zealand. I 
am not aware that any indications of glacial action have been 
observed with regard to the Cretaceous beds of this continent, 
There are, however, abundant evidences of a glacial period of 
great intensity which occurred in South-Eastern Australia during 
Permian, or Permo-Carboniferous times. Near Bacchus Marsh 
and Derrinal, in Victoria, there are glacial beds (sometimes seen 
to rest on polished and grooved pavements) that can be traced 
over hundreds of square miles, and must be several thousand 
feet in thickness. Having recently visited the Bacchus Marsh 
District, I have been able to place on exhibit, for comparison 
with the Hallett’s Cove material, a series of specimens from the 
Victorian beds. The close resemblance between these two sets 
of exhibits will be appreciated by all. The Bacchus Marsh beds 
appear to have suffered more disturbance than the Hallett’s 
Cove beds, as they dip almost uniformly at about 42° They con- 
sist of alternating beds of mudstones, thickly studded with 
glaciated boulders, sandstones, grits, and conglomerates. Many 
of the beds exhibit fine laminz along the lines of stratification, 
and at other spots are locally much distorted, as though ploughed 
up before the ice. In lithological features they closely resemble 
the Hallett’s Cove mudstones, sands, and conglomerates, but are 
more highly indurated, and in this respect have more the facies 
of rocks of Upper Paleozoic age. The sandstones particularly 
are often highly siliceous, and in one case, in the Wirribee Creek, 
there occurs a band of hard quartzite (a specimen of which is on 
the table). The age of these glacial beds of Victoria has been 
determined by the remains of Gangamopteris, a fossil fern char- 
acteristic of Permo-Carboniferous age, which occurs in consider- 
able numbers at one or two horizons intercalated with beds of 
glacial origin. The importance of these glacial conditions in 
Permian times is accentuated by the fact that deposits which 
seem to require ice action to account for their existence, are 
