428  Reviews—Stanford’s Geography—Australian Geology. 
own special features. Thus, he says, that the Upper Carboniferous is 
represented by the ‘famous glacial deposits and boulder-clays ot 
Bacchus Marsh, Heathcote, Bendigo, the Lodden Valley, and Southern 
Gippsland. These beds are unquestionably of glacial origin, as they 
contain polished and ice-scratched boulders, and rest upon rock 
surfaces which have been ground and worn by ice-action. The 
boulder beds are associated in places with lake deposits, but as 
a whole they are stratified tills.” It is unfortunate that these beds 
have not yielded any contemporary fossils, as it would be instructive 
to ascertain what the fauna and flora of this early glacial period was 
like. he glacial beds of Bacchus Marsh are overlaid by a series of 
sandstones which contain the leaves of Gangamopteris, and would 
seem to be on the horizon of the Greta or Lower Coal-measures of 
New South Wales. The Permo-Carboniferous deposits of New South 
Wales, with their rich coal-seams, have not been discovered in Victoria. 
Another interesting feature of this colony or state is the enormous 
development of Tertiary volcanics, especially in the south-west 
corner. The older Victorian basalts, or lavas, are associated with 
Middle Cainozoic beds, and were succeeded by basalts of a later 
period, which have been less denuded and decomposed. Still later 
occurred another series of volcanic eruptions, which piled up a number 
of craters, even now in a fairly good state of preservation. The best 
exposed vent of the older basaltic eruptions is the deeply dissected 
stump of a voleano two miles north-west of Bacchus Marsh. Here, 
then, the geologist may study side by side the phenomena of Frost 
and Fire. 
South Australia.—This is somewhat of a misnomer, seeing that 
the colony extends right across the continent from south to north 
as far as the Gulf of Carpentaria. The highlands of South Australia, 
clinging to the south coast, serve to connect the old Archean plateau 
of Westralia with the Paleozoic highlands of eastern Australia, and 
in this region there is great variety of rock formation, although the 
Cambrian is best represented. The great physical feature of South 
Australia is the Lake Eyre basin. This is now usually a plain of salt 
lakes and salt swamps; vast floods from the Queensland hills are 
poured into it, and the lake for a time contains salt water, but this 
soon evaporates, leaving only a chain of briny water-holes. This 
great basin is bounded on the south by the previously mentioned 
South Australian highlands, and on the west by the Peak and Denison 
ranges, whilst the slopes towards Queensland and New South Wales 
on the north and east are very gradual. The clays of Cretaceous age 
in the Lake Eyre basin imprison vast stores of water; the fossils 
obtained in fragments from the numerous boreholes include Cre- 
taceous mollusca, e.g., two species of Belemnite, Crioceras australe, 
Moore, Pinna australis, Hudl., etc., etc. There are also much later 
deposits, which may be Upper Pliocene or Pleistocene, of a deltaic 
character, rich in Diprotodon, the bones of crocodiles, giant lizards, 
and water-birds; but no signs of contemporary man have been found. 
This seems the proper place to consider the very interesting subject 
of the Flowing Wells of East Central Australia, noted by Dr. Gregory 
in the present volume (p. 101) and also in the ‘Dead Heart of 
