5fl 



carboniferous formation, which farther north, near Barn Bluff 

 and Cradle Mountain, consists mainly of conglomerate. These 

 would supply the stones, granite, slate, and porphyry, etc., 

 which Mr Moore has noticed, and also the fossils, 'and I 

 nave little doubt when he comes to examine the country 

 more thoroughly he will find these beds in situ under the 

 greenstone capping. It is hardly conceivable that if the con- 

 glomerate was deposited by floating ice action in Permo- 

 carbomferous times, which is what Mr. Moore's words seem to 

 imply, that it should happen that the only proofs of such ice 

 action should be found in a region where there has been 

 evidently severe glaciation at a much later date. Before 

 accepting such a theory, we should first have to eliminate all 

 possibility of the conglomerate having been formed at the later 

 period." 



So able an authority as Mr. E. J. Dunn, F.G.S., who dis- 

 covered a similar bed of glacial conglomerate between Moore's 

 Pimple and Mount Read at an elevation of 3,000 feet, is con- 

 vinced that it was deposited by floating ice in Pernio- carboni- 

 ferous times, and believes it to be identical with the con- 

 glomerates he has reported upon at Duck Creek, Victoria, 

 and m Africa, and further on I hope to convince Mr. Mont- 

 gomery that the above conclusions are correct. 



Let us take Mr. Montgomery's theory " that it is a recent 

 niorainal drift derived from the lower ' beds of the carboni- 

 ferous formation near Barn Bluff and the Cradle Mountain, 

 Which conglomerates would supply the granites, slates, por- 

 phyries, etc." 



_ The Cradle Mountain, the highest elevation in Tasmania, 

 is a little over 1,500 feet higher than the deposit at Mount 

 bedgwick, and if Mr. Montgomery had stated the height at 

 which the lower carboniferous beds occur, it would have 

 added more weight to his argument, and also shown if it were 

 possible that the non-local rocks in the ancient glacial con- 

 glomerate at Mount Sedgwick could be derived from this 

 locality, either at an ancient or more recent date of glacial 

 phenomena. Besides, if this were a niorainal drift derived 

 from this distant locality, would we not expect to find some 

 signs of the more elevated greenstone rocks in the shape of 

 erratics and other non-local rocks on the high plateau round 

 Mounts Geikie, Tyndall, Bead, Sedgwick, and Murchison ? 

 besides the conglomerate would not be confined to two isolated 

 spots. This would also apply to Mr. Johnston's suggestions 

 that the glaciers may have descended from the great plateau, 

 and that the arrow head of lineal direction of the general 

 trend of stria? may be turned the other way. The question 

 of the small collecting ground remaining above the ancient 

 snow line is difficult to solve. 

 Is it not more probable that in the recent ice period the rivers 



