BY R. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 113 
Europe and North America during the pleistocene age. For 
if the general belief of Australasian geologists be correct that 
the great glacier epoch of Southern Australia, Tasmania, and 
New Zealand occurred prior to the pleistocene age of Europe, 
and probably at a point of time contemporaneous with the 
pliocene of Europe, the astronomical theory alone would be 
an inadequate explanation of the whole facts. It is generally 
believed, however, that during the pleistocene period Austral- 
asia had experienced a pluvial epoch almost the parallel of 
corresponding northern latitudes—North Africa and Syria— 
during the glacial epoch. Thus, in a very able address 
recently delivered by Professor Jas. Geikie, D.C.L., LL.D., 
¥.R.S., as President of the Geological Society of Edinburgh, 
he states :—* 
“« But while the conditions in Northern and Central Europe 
were markedly glacial, further south only more or less isolated 
snow-capped mountains and local glaciers appeared —such, for 
example, as those of the Sierra Nevada, the Apennines, 
Corsica, the Atlas, the Lebanon, etc. In connection with 
these facts we may note also the Azores were reached by 
floating ice; and I need only refer in a word to the evidence 
of cold, wet conditions as furnished by the plant and 
animal remains of Southern Europe. Agazn, in North Africa 
and Syria, we find in now dessicated regions widespread fluvia- 
ile accumulations, which, in the opinion of a number of 
competent observers, are indicative of rainy conditions contem- 
poraneous with the glacial period of Europe.” 
I have marked the latter portion with italics for the pur- 
pose of drawing particular attention to the fact that the 
geographical position of Australia, at levst, in southern lati- 
tudes corresponds exactly with the position of North Africa 
and Syria, in northern latitude. If, therefore, the causes 
which produced the great glacial epoch in Northern Europe 
did not extend g/acia/ eff cts into Syria and North Africa, 
why should some Australian geologists expect intense glacial 
effects in Australia, seeing that corresponding latitudes in 
the Northern Hemisphere only experienced mild glacial 
effects on high mountain slopes, and only az increased rainfall 
on lower levels. If the opinion of our most competent geo- 
logical observers in Australia be correct, an increased pluvial 
action in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand are the only 
contemporaneous effects observed during the pleistocene 
period, as in corresponding latitudes in Syria and North 
Africa ; and thus far there is harmony with the astronomical 
theory. But if, in the opinion of the same observers, the 
isolated snow-capped mountains and local glaciers of Southern 
* “Supposed Causes of the Glacial Period :’’ Professor Jas. Geikie, D.C.L., LL.D., 
F.R.S. (Trans. Edin. Geol. Soc., p. 212.) 
