Art. I. — Victoria, as a Field for Geologists. 

 By Thomas Harrison, Esq. 



[Read 22nd May, 1865] 



There is a strong disposition abroad to underrate whatever 

 appertains to the circle immediately around us. The term 

 " colonial " has long been regarded as one of contempt. We 

 mentally, if not openly, despise everything to which the 

 objectionable adjective can be attached, from colonial 

 legislative assemblies down to colonial ale and porter. 



I should have left this matter unnoticed, especially in the 

 Hall of the Royal Society, but not a few persons seem 

 disposed to take like views of scientific phenomena witnessed 

 in this part of the globe, as though colonial laws of nature 

 were something different from, and not to be spoken of in 

 the same breath with, similar laws as manifested in older 

 communities. 



I shall leave it to Mr. Ellery to say whether there is 

 nothing worth examining in our heavens ; to Professor 

 M'Coy to tell us if he discovers aught worth noticing in 

 our fauna ; to Dr. Mueller to stand forth as the champion of 

 our botany ; and to doctors of medicine generally, to witness 

 if our especial and peculiar pathology is, or is not, worthy of 

 their attention as men of science ; and to-night my story 

 must be that of our rocks and fossils, a story which I think 

 will prove of interest, if I do not mar it sadly in the telling. 



That a picture may be pleasing and artistic, it should em- 

 body both harmonies and contrasts. There must be portions 

 where the lio-hts and the shadows are brouo^ht into forcible 

 opposition, and there must be portions, also, where the same 

 melt, almost imperceptibly, the one into the other. In 

 choosing a suitable field for scientific enquiry something 

 similar is looked for. We expect to discover what is alto- 

 gether new, forming the contrast (what an artist would call 

 his " strong points "), and to meet with many phenomena, 

 which prove old acquaintance, which, in like manner, answer 



