159 
GLACIAL ACTION IN TASMANTA. 
By A. Montcomery M.A., 
Government Geologist of Tasmania. 
Through the courtesy of the secretary I have been allowed 
to read Mr. Moore’s paper on “ The discovery of glaciation 
in Tasmania” read at the April meeting ofthe Royal Society, 
at which I was unfortunately unable to be present, and have 
thus been enabled to prepare a few notes upon it. Having 
myself come upon evidences of ice action in February last in 
the neighbourhood of Mount Pelion, and being at that time 
ignorant of Mr. Moore’s discovery four months earlier, 
I had intended in any case to submit to the Socicty a few 
observations on the subject of glaciation, and in continuing 
the discussion on this important and interesting subject I 
shall make a few remarks upon Mr. Moore’s paper, and then 
pass on to what I saw myself and to a few observations on 
more general aspects of the matter. 
It is by no means a new discovery, as Mr. Moore appears 
to think, that there have been glaciers among our western 
highlands, for Mr. R. M. Johnston, and, if I am not mistaken, 
the late Mr. Sprent also, noticed the existence of large 
erratic blocks in the valley of the Macintosh River, and in- 
ferred from these that they must have been brought down 
by ice, and Messrs. Dunn and Moore’s and my own later 
finding of striated boulders, smoothed surfaces, roches- 
moutonnées, and moraine drifts, only confirms the correctness 
of the views of these earlier observers. Mr. Moore is there- 
fore in error in ascribing to Mr. Dunn the honour of being 
the discoverer of evidences of glacial action in Tasmania, 
though perhaps he was the first to bring forward indis- 
putable proofs. 
The country described by Mr. Moore round Mounts 
Sedgwick and Tyndall and Lake Dora is very similar to that 
round Mount Pelion. The conglomerates which he speaks 
of as Devonian are of much interest, and the results of 
further examination of them and fossil evidence as to their 
age will no doubt add an important chapter to our knowledge 
of the geology of the colony. In my journey from Barn Bluff 
to Zeehan I noticed conglomerates of, I take it, three distinct 
ages: 1. A coarse conglomerate composed mainly of 
thoroughly waterworn pebbles of micaceous schists and 
quartzite lying in horizontal layers unconformably on the 
upturned edges of ancient schists and quartzites, and consti- 
tuting the lowest beds of the permo-carboniferous coal mea- 
