January i8, 1894] 



NATURE 



277 



Kenia, as their moraines were found 5000 feet below their 

 present level ; this would have a great inflaeiice in the distribu- 

 tion of the Alpine flora in equatorial Africa. In spite of the 

 numerous detailed studies of Kilima Njaro, no such evidence 

 had been recorded from that mountain. The fish faunas are 

 remarkably mixed, and show, as has long been surmised, that 

 the distribution of the African rivers was once very different 

 from ihe present. The geological results of the expedition 

 suggest that at one time the Nile did not flow from theNyanza, 

 but rose in the mountains to the north ; and the drainage 

 of the lakes flowed away to the east and then to the north, past 

 the site of Lake Ra lolf to the Red Sea. Thus it was pointed 

 out that the exploration of this part of Africa is of value not 

 merely as supplying topographical information, but from its 

 bearing on some important problems of geographical evolution. 



THE GEOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA.' 



TX the distant future the antiquity that this country can ever 

 possess is the history of the occupation by its present 

 holders ; its abDriginal people have not furnished any evidence 

 of a past history, insomuch, had it happened that they had 

 become extinct a quarter of a century before their discovery, the 

 only traces of prior occupation would have been in the form of 

 stone knives and hatchets an 1 flint spearheais. Interwoven 

 with the history of the progress of discovery and occupation is 

 that of the successive additions to our knowledge of its physical 

 structure and its natural history. The records of botanical 

 science and of geographical exploration have been brought up 

 to a recent date ; but the annals of the history of geological 

 progress have not yet been consecutively placed on record. In 

 ihe selection of a subject for my address I had experienced great 

 difificalty in discriminating between personal interest and repre- 

 sentative duty, and in choosing a "century of geological pro- 

 gress " for my theme I have sacrificed the former. 



The labour involved in the preparation of this address has 

 been very heavy, as I have read a hundred volumes to produce 

 a very modest accounc ; thus what I have dona looks small 

 when I recall the continuousness of the effort that accom- 

 plished it. The history of the progress of geology in 

 Australia is intimately associated with that of its geographical 

 discovery and of its advancement in scientific cu'ture ; it will 

 constitute a chapter in the early history of modern Australia, 

 and I venture to give some connected view of it, which, how- 

 ever bad it may be, is bat'er than to have no view at all ; more- 

 over, there are associated with the subject personal histories 

 which should be recorded whilst the knowledge of them is still 

 within our memory. And although it is my special object to 

 depict actual culminating results without any extended notice of 

 the facts and events which may have led up to them, yet to a 

 certain extent a knowledge of such facts and events is essential 

 to their proper appreciation, and may be productive of increased 

 interest. 



Just prior to the close of the last century, the controversy 

 between the Wernerian and Huttonian schools, or between 

 Vulcanists and Neptunists, relating to the origin of the crust of 

 the earth, was at its height. The Huttonian theory, which 

 prevailed, recognises that the strata of the present land surfaces 

 were formed out of the waste of pre-existing continents, and 

 that the same forces are still active. The characteristic feature 

 of Huttou's theory is the exclusion of all causes not recognised 

 to belong to the preeat order of nature. With the opening of 

 the present century a new school arose, which laid the foundation 

 of modern geology. Tnree men were largely concerned in this 

 achievement — Cuvier, Lamarck, and William Smith ; the two 

 former in France had a'l the powers which great talent, educa- 

 tion, and station could give, whilst the last was an English land 

 surveyor without culture or induence. George Cuvier laid the 

 foundation of comparative osteology, recent and fossil ; Lamarck 

 that of invertebrate palaeontology ; whilst Smith established the 

 fundamental principles of stratigraphical palaeontology, viz. the 

 superposition of stratified rocks and the succession of life in 

 time. 



The earliest geological observation? relating to Australia 

 antedate by only a few years the beginning of this century, so 



1 A part of the inauguraradJress delivered at Adelaide, on September 26, 

 1893, by Prof. Ralph Tate, the newly elected President of the Australian 

 Association for the Advanisment of Scienc;. 



that the history of our progress in geology is concurrent with that 

 of modern geology, and it affords grand illustrations of the 

 methods of application of the laws as they were successively 

 evolved in the European schools, to an area so distantly removed 

 from that which gave them birth. Thus our history begins at a 

 m 1st fortuitous period. No prejudices or scholastic disputations 

 have retarded our progress, for those who have aided in the 

 work were disciples in the modern school of geology. And 

 though, on a retrospective glance, we may hesitate to attach any 

 high value to the labours of pioneer geologists, yet we should not 

 forget that our horizon is so much vaster than theirs was, and to 

 the extension of it they had lent their aid. And though it m\y 

 be true that if the geological progress of the first half of this 

 century were quite ignored, we would not probably suffer any 

 great loss, as I believe that nearly all the areas explored at the 

 earliw'St period have been re-examined in later times by men 

 more carefully trained than was previously possible, nevertheless 

 the gradual accumulation of data supplies us with a history, and 

 makes us better acquainted with the causes that at certain times 

 made that progress slow, or even retarded it. For the first three 

 or four decades of this century our geological knowledge had 

 been almost entirely the outcome of maiitime surveys, whilst in 

 later years it has been largely supplemented by inland explor- 

 ation ; thus, for a half-century or so the geological progress is 

 part of the history of topographical discovery, which explains 

 why our earlier geological information is inseparable from 

 the achievements of such renowned geographers as Flinders, 

 Baudin, King, Sturt, Mitchell, Stokes, Wilkes, Leichardr, 

 Gregory, &c. The subsequent history of our geological pro- 

 gress commences with the establishment of systematic geological 

 surveys in New South Wales and Victoria, which afterwards led 

 to their extension to the other provincial areas. Almost simul- 

 taneously, universities were founded at Melbourne and Sydney ; 

 thus whilst the surveys dealt with geology more in its industrial 

 applications, the universities upheld its value on purely scientific 

 grounds. By these agencies a large interest was awakened in 

 the science, and many in whom zeal had been latent were added 

 to the ranks of geological investigators. Much of the knowledge 

 gained in these various ways is expressed on the geological map 

 of Australia, published by the Victorian Government in 1887. 

 The several steps by which this map has been built up, I will 

 endeavour to make known to you, and though my geological 

 reminiscences do not extend far back, yet they embrace some of 

 the most important discoveries made on this continent ; at 

 the same time I wouhi wish to avoid the mistake of claiming too 

 large an authority on account of my years. 



Though the discovery of Australia may date back to the middle 

 of the sixteenth century, yet it continued a terra inco^'uila, at 

 least from a scientific point of view, until Cook — the Columbus 

 of the south — began in 1770 the present phase of scientific ex- 

 peditions ; and though geology reaped no gain, yet in botany 

 was laid the foundation of a knowledge of that marvellous and 

 peculiar flora of Australia through the labours of Banks and 

 Solander, the companions of Cook. 



Vancouver, who discovered King George Sound in 1791, 

 describes the summit of Bald Head to be covered with a coral 

 structure, amongst which are many sea-shells, and argued a 

 modern date of elevation. However faulty the interpretation 

 I of the nature of the data may be, yet the deduction is sound, 

 and that may be claimed as the first recorded geological 

 observation for Australia, made 1025 years ago. 



Coal was discovered in New South Wales in 1797, first to 

 the south of Sydney, and in the same year on the banks of the 

 River Hunter, at what is now Newcastle. 



Flinders and Bass, jointly and separately, between the years 

 1797 and 1798, had explored the coast-line southward from 

 Sydney, reaching as far west as Western Port, and embracing 

 the circumnavigation of Tasmania. The more prominent rock 

 phenomena were described. In 1801 Flinders was commissioned 

 to complete the examination and survey of New Holland. The 

 coast-line of Australia was traced with care as far as the tropics ; 

 Flinders paid much attention to physiographic features, whilst 

 Brown collected rock specimens. The rock specimens col- 

 lected on this survey were reported on by Dr. Filton in 1825, 

 but beyond their mere enumeration and their agreement with 

 those of the same denomination from other parts of the world, 

 no attempt was made to chronologically arrange them ; others 

 collected by Bro vn, during his sojourn in New South Wales, were 

 reported on by Dean Buckland in 1821, hereafter referred to. 



Contemporaneously with the marine survey by Flinders was 



NO. 1264, VOL. 49] 



