42 



NOTES ON THE PHYSICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL RELA- 

 TIONS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA. 



By the Rev. J. E. Tenison Woods, F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 F.R.G.S., &c., &c, &c. 



[Read Uth July, 1874.] 



It is now some years since the Royal Society of Tasmania 

 did me the distinguished honor of electing me one of its mem- 

 bers, and I regret extremely that various occupations have 

 always prevented me from contributing something to its 

 transactions. My constant engagements in various duties 

 have almost entirely discontinued those special investigations 

 in natural science, in which I was formerly engaged, and all 

 that I can offer now in the shape of original enquiries, are the 

 observations of a traveller. But, fortunately, my opportuni- 

 ties for travel give me a very wide field for observation, and 

 this, with a taste for it, and a good will to observe, have 

 enabled me to pick up some facts which may not be unworthy 

 the acceptance of the Society. The last two years have been 

 spent in East Australia, and my short residence in Tasmania 

 has pointed out curious relations between the natural history 

 of that part of the Continent and this Island. There can be 

 no doubt that Tasmania unites features in her natural history 

 which is characteristic of distinct provinces in Australia. If 

 we take the eastern half of the Continent, we may divide it 

 into three portions, viz. : The coast region, characterized by a 

 genial humid climate, with a vegetation in the temperate 

 regions which is almost tropical in luxuriance, and generally 

 Asiatic in fades, which is more decided as we proceed north- 

 ward. We find tertiary rocks, mostly volcanic, and belonging 

 to several periods, with no true tertiary marine rocks, and the 

 beds, where fossiliferous, belonging to the Lower Mesozoic or 

 Upper Palaeozoic periods. Litoral deposits or raised beaches 

 of any age are unknown. Where volcanic soils prevail 

 or coal-bearing carboniferous rocks, the land is generally 

 fertile. The second province is the table land, sometimes a 

 purely mountainous region, almost entirely consisting of 

 Palaeozoic rocks, with intrusions of quartz Diorite, and in the 

 lower deposits only mineral veins. Granite and other meta- 

 morphic rocks, giving rise totrue lodes, are found throughout 

 the whole extent. This granite is partly an altered rock, and 

 probably not all of one age. I am inclined to think that the 

 greater part of it belongs to rocks of the close of the Palaeo- 

 zoic period, but its alteration may be subsequent, and extend- 

 ing over a long range of time. Sometimes the surface, though 

 as diversified in its rocks, is less mountainous, probably through 

 weathering, and then the soils are accessible to cultivation. 



