812 KEFORT— 1884. 



(b) Cheeks by telegraphic longitudes. It is but very recently that lines have 

 been constructed admitting of these, the only application, so far, of the method 

 having been that in which the position in longitude of the first initial meridian 

 was fixed by conjoint operation of the Royal Engineers engaged in the boundary 

 survey at Rembina and the ' reader ' at Chicago, used as a datum point. It is 

 intended to apply the method where serviceable, now that means of doing so are 

 beginning to be available. 



5. Cartography. — An account of several maps, of detail maps, and of processes 

 of multiplying copies. 



6. A statement of the area surveyed in a season, and of the total area surveyed 

 to present time. 



6. On the former Connection between North America and the Eastern side 

 of the Atlantic. By Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.E.8. 



The former connection of North America with Greenland, Iceland, and North- 

 Western Europe, is most conclusively proved by the distribution of the fossil- 

 plants and animals in the remote geological past — in the eocene and miocene ages. 



The magnolia, for example, is a form which was abundant in the eocene forests 

 of Europe and the far north of America. The sequoia, too, now confined to the 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada, may be quoted as an example of the vegetation common 

 to North America and to Europe ; as well as the fox-grape. The common sensitive 

 fern so usually found in this region of Canada occurs, buried under sheets of basalt, 

 in the island of Mull. The Lepidosteus of the American rivers was living in the 

 eocene rivers of the south of England. Among the higher mammalia common 

 to both may be quoted the Coryphodon. The route by which these animals 

 arrived is shown by the soundings. The tract of comparatively shallow 

 water which ranges from Greenland past Iceland to the Faroes and Northern Scot- 

 land, and isolates the deep waters of the Arctic Sea from the depths of the 

 Atlantic, formed the bridge across which the migration took place, the 500-fathom 

 line representing approximately the line of the ancient shores. This barrier became 

 submerged during the stupendous geographical changes which took place at the 

 close of the miocene age. Then, for the first time, were the Arctic waters united 

 with the Atlantic, and Arctic shells gradually found their way southwards into 

 the area of the British Isles. 



7. On Charles WinnecJce's Explorations in Central Australia, with Notes on 

 the Employment of Camels. By J. S. O'Halloran, F.B.O.S. 



The author gave a brief account of an adventurous journey through an unknown 

 region lying between the Overland telegraph and Queensland, by collating Mr. 

 Charles Winnecke's diary, which has been laid before the South Australian Legis- 

 lature. The members of the Association having had the privilege of listening to a 

 stirring description of the perils encountered by the heroes of the Arctic, it seemed 

 appropriate that the meetings of this section shoidd close with a reference to the 

 hardships braved by one of those who followed in the track of men who have laboured 

 to throw light on the unexplored interior of the great island continent of Australia. 



Having furnished a broad outline of the physical features of the interior of 

 Australia, the author stated that the introduction of the camel rendered possible 

 the journeys of many explorers, who without such aid could hardly have survived 

 the sufferings involved by traversing the tracts of arid, inhospitable country which 

 too frequently occurred. 



Mr. Winnecke's party started on August 16, 1883, from the Cowarie station on 

 the Warburton River, attained its ' furthest ' on the Field River, in lat. 22° 50', 

 and returned to Beltana on December 2. About 400 miles of new country had 

 been traversed, 40,000 square miles of new land had been sketched, and a collection 

 of plants found in Central Australia between lat. 22° 30' and 28° S., and long. 136° 30' 

 and 139° 30' E., had been examined and classified by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. 



