(2 IDITROJRILAUL, 
THE ‘‘ Report of the Research Committee, appointed to Col- 
lect Evidence as to Glacial Action in Australasia” (Brisbane, 
1895), and the! kresidential ~Address| of Erotesson) Ta vy ase 
David before the Australasian Association for the Advancement 
of Science (of like date) together with Professor David's 
recent paper before the Geological Society of London, on 
‘‘ Glacial Action in Australasia in Permo-Carboniferous Time,” 
bring forth into fresh and collective form a large mass of data 
respecting ancient glaciation which merit the most serious con- 
sideration of students of the climatic phases of the earth’s his- 
tory. In some degree, to be sure, the facts are familiar to geol- 
ogists, but the magnitude of the phenomena have not been so 
clearly and impressively set forth before. It is shown by 
detailed sections and by specific data of clear import that the 
Permian glacial phenomena of Australia, have great vertical as well 
as lateral extent. At Bacchus Marsh, for instance, there are at 
least eight successive deposits of well characterized glacial till, 
reaching an aggregate thickness of over 1100 feet. The whole 
section, including interstratified conglomerates, sandstones and 
shales, reaches 2000 feet. Six of the glacial bowlder beds reach 
thicknesses ranging from 132 to 235 feet. From this it appears 
that the vertical thickness greatly exceeds that of the Pleistocene 
glacial deposits of like situations. The known localities range 
through 12° in longitude and 21° in latitude and reach north 
of the tropic of Capricorn. The number of discovered localities 
has already become large. Extensive striated pavements occur 
at different places. The scratched bowlders are abundant and 
often large, reaching in one case a mass of thirty tons. In New © 
South Wales a group of coal beds comprising from twenty to 
forty feet of coal occurs in the midst of the series. 
514 
