38 



tlie shores of Australia. I am given to understand that since 

 the publication of his geological work on South Australia the 

 Eev. J. E. T. Woods has seen fit to change his mind about the 

 occurrence of a glacial epoch in Australia, and concludes that 

 under the circumstances, and the present acceptation of the 

 term, that it was impossible for a glacial epoch to have 

 occurred in these regions. Eeturning, however, more particu- 

 larly^ to the supposed ice striae at Black Point, and assuming 

 that the stricT on the surface of the stone there were effected 

 by the passage of land ice, these seemingly ice-striated scores \ 

 on its surface are impressed upon it in the direction of south ' 

 and north, and vice versa. G uided by this fact, and presuming 

 that the strata upon which the striated block reclines was at 

 the time when the markings upon its surface were effected 

 raised to an elevation of something approaching from 12,000 to 

 15,000 feet above its present altitude (an elevation of 10,000 

 feet is not sufficiently great to maintain glaciation either now 

 or during the period of the drift in the neighbourhood of 

 Holdfast Bay). If such had been the case, it is perfectly 

 obvious that the area now occupied by St. Vincent's Gulf must 

 have then been wholly filled with land ice. Therefore the 

 glacier, if it was one, that left its supposed ice impressions 

 iipon the stone at Black Point was not by any means pursuing 

 its most direct course to the sea; for according to the direc- 

 tion of the impressions left upon the stone, the glacier's path 

 must have been either north, which is directly inland, or south, 

 which was not at all likely, because in that case the glacier 

 would have had to contend against and surmount the source 

 from which it originated. "Whatever may have been the 

 primary origin of these striations, in a great measure at least 

 thev must now be confined to the realms of conjecture ; yet, 

 after fully considering the whole circumstances in connection 

 therewith', I am led to believe that the furrowiugs in question 

 were not produced by the action of land-ice. The phenomena, 

 in all likelihood, might otherwise be referable to the original 

 chemical inequalities in the character of the stone itself, the 

 softer parts, after its exposure to atmospheric influences, 

 yielding in a somewhat greater degree to the action of the 

 north winds, and surcharged as these winds most frequently 

 are with silicious sand, the furrowed markings upon the stone, 

 and the path of these winds being in direct parallelism, sug- 

 gests a hypothesis that the markings may have arisen in the 

 manner described. 



Then as to the fact that erratic boulders have been found 

 sparingly strewn over the land surface in the locality of Black 

 Point, and, also, a few, on rare occasions, have been discovered 

 in other parts of the colony, chiefly near the present coast- 



