NOTES ON THE GLACIAL BEDS OF FREE- 

 STONE-BLUFF (SANDY COVE) NEAR WYN- 

 YARD. (PL. IX., X., XL, XII.) 



By Fritz Noetling, M.A., Ph.D., etc. 

 (Read October i8th, 1909.) 



(i) HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 



The first description of the geological features of the 

 coast near Wynyard was given forty years ago by Mr. 

 T. Stephens (i) in a paper read before this Society. In 

 this paper Mr. Stephens drew special attention to the 

 conglomerates at the mouth of the Inglis, and, after 

 mentioning the occurrence of large angular blocks of 

 granite and porphyry, he goes on to say — " These mas- 

 sive blocks of granite and other rocks which are not 

 now found in situ within several miles of their present 

 position, I consider to furnish more conclusive evidence 

 of glacial agency in the geological history of Tasmania 

 than I have m^et with elsewhere. . . ." As to the age 

 of this conglomerate, Mr. Stephens says : — " It under- 

 lies unconformably the tertiary freestone, which has 

 been determined by Professor IVE'Coy to be of mlbcene 

 age, and it contains boulders derived from rocks which 

 are certainly not older than the lower carboniferous' or 

 Devonian period."' 



■ Mr. Stephens was therefore the first to recognise 

 the glacial origin of the " cong"lomerate " near Wynyard, 

 and, though he does not exactly say so, the inference 

 from the above passages is that he considers these beds 

 to be of carboniferous age. Mr. Stephens, though per- 

 haps not the first who advocated a palaeozoic glacial 

 period, was certainly among the first who did so, and. 

 what is more, he was the first who recognised ^the 

 palaeozoic glacial period in Tasmania. 



(i) Remarks on the Geological Structure of Part of North, 

 Coast of Tasmania, with special reference to the Tertiary Marine 

 Beds near Table Cape. Proceed. Roy. Soc. Tas., 1869, pag. 1/. 



