57 



In 1887 another paper by his fluent pen is recorded, which 

 I conclude would be written affer his trip in 1887 with Mr. 

 C. P. Spreut and party along my track of 1883 and 1886, 

 which at the time of their journey had for a great part of its 

 distance been formed into a horse track. 



It is on this journey, following on my footsteps four years 

 later, that Mr. Johnston first finds his evidences of land 

 glaciation at Lake Dixon, in the vicinity of Mount Gell. 

 Being the first explorer in this direction to the West Coast, 

 in all probability Mr. Sprent had one of my reports with him 

 with remarks as to glacial action, as it was principally 

 through his instructions as Deputy Surveyor-General I con- 

 ducted my explorations. It was also after this trip that Mr. 

 Sprent wrote his paper for the Victorian Branch of the Royal 

 Geographical Society of Australasia, containing notes relative 

 to glaciation in Tasmania. During this tour Mr. Johnston 

 mentions that he spent three days in examining more par- 

 ticularly the rock formations on Mounts Owen, Lyell, and 

 Sedgwick. This statement requires explanation, as it would 

 appear that glacial action at that date had been found in the 

 vicinity of Mount Sedgwick ; to have reached Mount Sedg- 

 wick alone at that time four long days would be required to 

 complete the journey there and back, therefore we must con- 

 clude our good friend had the use of a flying machine, or 

 was mistaken in the mountains he visited. 



With regard to the ancient glacial conglomerate, Mr. 

 Johnston agrees with Mr. Dunn and myself that the con- 

 glomerates at Mounts Read and Sedgwick have originally 

 been deposited under water by floating ice and belong to a 

 very ancient epoch. 



Mr. Dunn in his paper entitled " Glaciation of the Western 

 Highlands, Tasmania " (in Proc. R.S. Vic, 1893), states with 

 reference to the Mount Eead conglomerate :— -" There is_ a 

 marked similarity in the nature of the cementing material 

 and in the character of the embedded pebbles and boulders 

 to the glacial conglomerate found at Wild Duck Creek, 

 Victoria, and to the Dwyka conglomerate of South Africa, 

 and they probably all belong to a very ancient epoch, either 

 near the close of the Palasozoic period or else the commence- 

 ment of the Secondary era." Mr. Johnston (page 35) says : 

 " It is possible that some of the thick conglomerate beds 

 occurring in the vicinity of Mount Tyndall, Mount Lyell, and 

 Mount Owen* in which marks of ice action are reported to 

 have been recently discovered by Messrs. Dunn and Moore 

 may yet prove to belong to the same horizon " (Permo- 

 carboniferous). The ice marks in the conglomerate beds at 

 Mounts Bead and Sedgwick may belong to the Permo- 



* Specimens with ice marks were sent from these conglomerates last year to 

 illustrate my paper. 



