76 



highlands, the most sceptical must now allow that the descent 

 of these to sea level has been general. 



Let us now consider the evidence we have regarding the age 

 of our glaciation. Professor E. Y. Lendenfeld's deductions 

 are, that the glaciation of the Tyndall and Sedgwick country 

 appears to belong to a more recent period than the glaciation 

 of the Australian Alps. If this is allowed we have two glacial 

 epochs in Australasia, or one long continuous period besides 

 the ice age of the Permo-carboniferous era. In Western 

 Tasmania our land glacial action has not been earlier than the 

 Pliocene period, or we should find some evidences in the 

 palaeogene deposits round the shores of Macquarie Harbour, 

 especially in the region of the ice-marked and worn boulders 

 near Farm Cove. Let us assume that the glacial action in the 

 highlands is of a more recent date than that of the deposits 

 lately described, accounted for in this way: that the 

 refrigeration of the climate was more intense at the 

 commencement and middle of our glacial epoch than towards 

 its close. During the intense period the ice has not wholly 

 covered the land, but has extended far down into the low-lying 

 valleys, and glaciers have descended even to sea level, or in 

 cases nearly so, as proved by the moraines at Kelly's Basin, 

 Parm Cove, King River, and Strahan. Towards the end _ of 

 our glacial epoch the climate has become milder and the ice 

 has retired from the lower valleys, still leaving a vast sheet on 

 the highlands, which by subsequent local flows caused the 

 more recent striatums, etc., on the bed rocks, and on melting 

 left the extensive moraines in close proximity to the mountain 

 peaks. 



The Australian Alps being further from Antarctic influence 

 in a warmer latitude than our West Coast, possibly the refri- 

 geration of the climate there has not been so intense. For, 

 according to Professor Lendenfeld and other authorities, the 

 glaciers have been local, being confined to mountains higher 

 than our own, and the rocks now show less marked signs of ice 

 influence than those in our islands. This would point to the 

 fact that the age of glacial action in the Australian Alps may 

 correspond with the more intense period of our glacial era, for 

 assuming that the climate on the continent was milder, the 

 ice sheets would therefore be confinod to the higher mountains, 

 and would probably have melted when our rivers of ice and 

 glaciers disappeared from the lowlands. After the disap- 

 pearance of all ice from Australia, the highlands of Western 

 Tasmania would still be covered, causing the recent glaciation 

 at the close of our glacial epoch. 



Perhaps by some I may be considered an infatuated enthu- 

 siast who has recorded actual facts of observation carefully ; 

 granted this is correct, still it is only by actual observation and 



