54 Probable Astronomical Causes of 



information is obtainable, and it is to the performance of such 

 a duty I now invite the members of this Society. 



The manners and customs of the Aborigines, would neces- 

 sarily be an accompaniment to any inquiry into their 

 dialects, but with this difference, that much greater circum- 

 spection will be requisite to eliminate truth from fiction — 

 actual well-established usage and faith (if any) from artifice 

 and invention. 



To the above general sketch of the information required, I 

 may add, that the inquiries instituted will, in all likelihood, 

 render possible the compilation of a map, showing the distri- 

 bution of the various tribes, and may also throw some 

 additional light on the peculiar productions of some of the 

 less-known regions of the country. 



For the accomplishment of the above objects I beg to 

 propose the formation of Section E, for Geographical and 

 Ethnological Science, under Law 60, and that Professor 

 Halford, Mr. Gideon Lang, Mr. J. J. Stutzer, Mr. James 

 Bon wick, and myself, be the first members, and that Professor 

 Halford be the chairman of the section. 



Art. yi. — Probable Astronomical Causes of the Contortions 

 in Palceozoic Strata, and the Prevailing Meridianal 

 Strike of the Older Rocks of Victoria. By Thomas 

 Hareisok 



[Read 16th October, 1865.] 



At the very commencement of this paper, I would especially 

 wish to disclaim aught like a desire to set up a theory. At 

 the utmost I simply ask leave to read before your Society 

 certain notes and observations which have occupied my 

 attention for the past three or four years. I do even this 

 interrogatively. I lay the various facts and reasonings before 

 you as a humble seeker after truth, and not as one by whom 

 truth has already been discovered. 



To my mind there seems to be some show of reason in 

 what will be advanced. That, however, will be for your 

 Society to determine. Should _ I be so fortunate as to have, 

 almost inadvertently, hit upon the solution of a geological 

 difficulty, I am well assured all present will rejoice equally 

 with myself. Or if, on the other hand, I have been pursuing 

 a mere shadoAV, the sooner my eyes are open to the error, the 



