524 
NATURE 
~~ 
[Sepz. 30, 1886 
It snows in the Australian Alps very much in the 
winter, and the prevailing westerly winter winds pile up 
masses of wind-blown snow just below the high ridges on 
their eastern or lee sice. These masses of snow never 
disappear altogether in summer, and we find eternal snow 
in the Australian Alps at an elevation of 6500 feet. 
The excessively clear and bright Australian atmosphere 
affords no obstacle to the nocturnal irradiation of the 
day’s heat, and so it freezes very frequently there at 
night, even in midsummer, down to 5000 feet. I experi- 
enced severe frosts on Mount Kosciusco in January 1885 
—January corresponds to our July—whilst it was in- 
tensely hot in the adjacent lowlands. 
From these statements it is evident that we have in the 
Australian Alps a formidable mountain-range, which, 
although not glaciated now, would bear glaciers if the 
climate were slightly colder and more humid. 
It seemed particularly surprising, therefore, that the 
older authors on Australian glaciation had given a verdict 
without examining the Alps. If no glacier traces were 
found in the lowlands, they yet might be found in the 
Alps; and if glacier traces were found in the lowlands, 
how much more extensive must they be in the mountains. 
Up the mountains I accordingly went to look for them. 
I undertook two expeditions. In 1885 I visited the 
Kosciusco group and ascended Mueller’s Peak and 
Mount Townsend, and this year I explored the Bogong 
range and ascended the highest mountain in Victoria, 
Mount Bogong. 
The Governments and learned Societies of New South 
Wales and Victoria greatly assisted me in my work by 
pecuniary aid and in other ways, and I am glad here to 
find an opportunity of expressing my gratitude for the 
great—I might say splendid—liberality with which the 
Australians have aided me. Onmy second journey I was 
accompanied by Mr. James Stirling, District Surveyor of 
Omeo, whose well-known essays on Australian glaciation 
have closely connected his name with the subject I had 
in view. 
I was favoured with fine weather on both occasions, 
and on both occasions travelled through country never 
previously explored by any one with practical mountain- 
eering experience. North of Mount Bogong I travelled 
for three days through country hitherto unknown. I 
found glacier traces on both occasions in great abundance, 
and in a sufficient state of preservation to be recognised 
as such without the shadow of a doubt. On the sides of 
the valleys of the tributaries to the Snowy River, which 
drains the eastern slopes of the Kosciusco plateau, I 
found abundant voches moutonnées at levels over 5800 feet, 
and high above the bottoms of the valleys. Also in some 
parts of the table-land itself such were found. With a 
little Alpine experience it is not difficult to discriminate 
between such ice-worn rocks and the ordinary bosses of 
weathered granite. These rocks are particularly well- 
defined in the Wilkinson Valley, the upper part of which 
is situated between Mount Townsend and Mueller’s Peak. 
The bottom of the upper part of this valley is a broad 
and flat plain 6260 feet above sea-level. ‘The hill-sides 
which surround it are everywhere worn down by glacial 
action up to about 800 feet above the valley bottom. The 
upper limit of ice-action is clearly marked, as in many 
valleys of the European Alps, and the thickness of the 
prehistoric ice stream thereby clearly indicated. 
On the southern slopes of Mount Bogong, and also on 
the spurs of the northern flank of the mountain, basaltic 
erratics were found, which rocks could hardly have been 
transported to that locality without ice-action. In the 
valley of Mountain Creek, to the north of Mount Bogong, we 
discovered a large and well-preserved terminal moraine 
at an elevation of about 2800 feet, and some traces of 
others further down the valley. 
The large moraine was carefully studied by Mr. Stirling 
and myself. Rocks of various kinds are scattered 
irregularly in it. It extends from one side of the broad 
valley to the other, and is cut through near the centre by 
the Mountain Creek. On the steep slopes towards the 
stream its composition of rocks brought down by an ice- 
stream can be easily recognised. 
These two expeditions to the Australian Alps convinced 
me that at one time these mountains were glaciated, and | 
the discovery of the moraine in Mountain Creek Valley, _ 
together with Stirling’s (/.c.) elaborate researches in the 
Livingstone Valley, prove that the ice-streams of the 
Glacial period must have descended to pretty low levels. | 
Down to 2000 feet glacial traces have been found in | 
various parts of the Alps, and also in the Lofty Mountains | 
near Adelaide. It is assumed by C. Wilkinson and other 
leading Australian geologists that a pluviatile period existed 
in the Miocene period, and it is obvious that such a period 
would probably be isochronous with the glaciation at high 
levels. 
It is difficult to say whether the Australian and New 
Zealand glaciation was simultaneous, but that also 
appears probable. The better preservation of striae, &c., 
in New Zealand is doubtless due to the greater hardness 
and resisting power to meteorological influences, of the | 
ice-worn rocks in New Zealand than in the Australian 
Alps, where rapidly weathering granite is prevalent. 
Whether this glaciation of Australasia was simultaneous 
with the last glaciation of Europe, or whether it was in 
time situated between the last glaciation and the last but 
one of the northern hemisphere, is not easy to decide. 
It appears nearly certain that it was wof /ater than the 
last European Glacial period, and, as far as my opinion 
of the appearance of the traces it left behind goes, it was 
earlier. It may be hoped that future researches will show 
in a decisive manner whether it was simultaneous or 
earlier. If we do not consider merely local circumstances 
of sufficient effect to produce such a great change of 
climate as to cause so extensive a glaciation, we may, by 
arriving at the decision of the time of the Glacial period 
in Australia, also ascertain whether Glacial periods — 
in the southern and northern hemispheres are szmmulta- — 
neous or alternating, which would give a clue to the 
difficult problem before us. ¢ 
The necessary researches will doubtless be carried on — 
with vigour by Australian men of science; and we may | 
hope that their sagacity and perseverance may lead to 
the solution of the question, What is the cause of Glacial — 
periods ? R. VON LENDENFELD 
ROOTS? 
ie is a fact which has become more and more evident to 
the practical cultivator that the results of his efforts 
manifest themselves on the whole in a sort of compromise 
between the plant and its environment: I mean that 
although he sees more or less distinctly what his plant { 
should be—according to a certain standard, however—it — 
is but rarely, if ever, that the plant cultivated perfectly — 
fulfils in every respect what is demanded of it. Of late 
years this has of course forced itself more prominently 
before the observer, because the facts and phenomena 
constituting what is termed variation have been so much 
more definitely described, and the questions arising out 
of them so much more clearly formulated. 
Two points can be asserted without fear of contra- 
diction : first, the plant itself is a variable organism ; 
and, secondly, its environment varies. Now within 
limits which are somewhat wide, when closely ex- 
amined, the experience of man leads him to neglect the 
variations occurring around him, and so no one quarrels 
with the statement that two individual geraniums belong 
to the same variety, or two oak trees to the same species, 
Crt Ge iy « 
X See Nature, vol. xxxi. p. 183. A lecture by H. Marshall Ward, M.A., 
F.L.S., Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge ; Professor of Botany in the 
School of Forestry, Royal Indian College, Cooper's Hill. 
