8 Evidences of a Glacial Epoch in Victoria 



to retain ice scratches. Most persons must have been struck 

 by the rapidity with which the finer chisel marks upon the 

 stone faces of our public buildings and the lettering of our 

 monuments and tombstones have lost their sharpness of out- 

 line, for, short as is the time during which they have been 

 exposed to the weather, they have begun to decay. But 

 even the hardest rocks will lose their markings if they are 

 not covered in some way ; and in a newly-settled country 

 any marks so overspread as to be preserved might long 

 lie concealed. Again, thin ice does not leave behind it 

 striae, moraines, or till. Such are the products of massive ice 

 alone, and to nourish such high land is required. Now, Vic- 

 toria has not a large area of mountain land ; the scope of such 

 ice action would be restricted to its neighbourhood, and there 

 would be but little use in searching for its traces over the 

 lower and larger area. Frigid as is Siberia's climate, its 

 flatness is such that she cannot show any of the deeper 

 traces of glaciation, and yet snow and ice cover the country 

 during large portions of the year (Great Ice Age, p. 555). 

 Near the Rocky Mountains of North America there is a 

 large patch of country quite bare of such traces, while all 

 around it they abound (Geikie's Text Booh, p. 899). This 

 absence is due to some local peculiarity, and not to the non- 

 occurrence of a glacial climate, and therefore the absence 

 of such evidences is not conclusive as against the occurrence 

 of a glacial climate. Bearing all the circumstances to which 

 we have adverted in mind, we ought not to wonder at rock 

 striae being scarce, but rather we might feel surprised that 

 any should have been preserved. 



We have, in the next place, to look for any ice-scooped 

 lake basins, which are only striae on a larger and deeper 

 scale. These, also, are infrequent here. 



Lake Omeo seems to be fairly identifiable as one. It 

 occurs on a rocky plateau 3000 feet above the sea level, and 

 is three and a half miles long by one and a half broad. It 

 has no outlet, and appears to have been hollowed out of the 

 rock. I understand that Mr. A. W. Howitt attributes several 

 other lakelets in this district to ice action. 



Several of the Tasmanian lakes are of glacial origin, 

 having been ice-dug out of solid stone. Such an one is the 

 Great Lake, twelve miles long, and Lake St. Clair, ten miles 

 long (Wallace's Australia, p. 242). 



When considering the existence amongst our hills of 

 glacial lakes, we must remember that glaciers fill up, as well 



