18 Evidences of a Glacial Epoch in Victoria 



covered with brackish ice-waters of shallow depth, loaded 

 with sediment, running northwards in strong currents. Let 

 us see what geological evidence we have to countenance 

 these theories. 



It will be admitted, as a fair inference, I do not doubt, 

 that if the other lands situate in similar latitudes in this 

 hemisphere can be shown to have passed through a glacial 

 period about the close of the tertiary period, Victoria 

 cannot have escaped the same experience. 



If, then, we turn" to New Zealand, we shall find the 

 geologists of that colony recording the existence, during the 

 epoch in question, of glaciers so much greater than the 

 jDresent ones, that, where the largest to-day does not 

 exceed from 15 to 18 miles in length, there then was at 

 least one 112 miles loug (Y. Haast's Geo. of Canterbury, 

 p. 385). 



In South Africa we find evidences of a similar climatal 

 condition. All over British Kafir-aria and Natal — that is, 

 between 28° S. and 34° S. — dome-shaped rocks, enor- 

 mous erratics, unstratified boulder clays, and conglomerate 

 beds are abundant. There are ice-grooved rocks and boulders, 

 the latter being found in auriferous leads at the Moonlight 

 Diggings; and also long, winding kames running up the 

 valleys (G. S. J. Stow, 1874, pp. 588-658 ; XXVII.,' p. 535 ; 

 and XVIII., p. 8). 



It will be noticed that these occur nearer to the equator 

 than is either Sydney or Bourke. 



In South America we find glacial drift at low levels up to 

 18° S., and Agassiz reports similar deposits in Brazil. 

 David Forbes saw deeply furrowed rocks and other charac- 

 teristic evidence on the Cordilleras within the tropics, and 

 far below the present snow-line (Gold, p. 216). Darwin saw 

 immense moraines in Central Chili (Or. Species, p. 335), and 

 also widespread deposits of boulders, gravel, and clay, up to 

 1400 feet above the sea level, in the interior of Patagonia 

 (Geo. Obs. on South America, pp. 10-19), and he assigns 

 them to pliocene or pleistocene times. 



I think that these facts should fairly suffice to establish 

 the occurrence of a glacial climate throughout the now tem- 

 perate regions of this hemisphere, and during post-miocene 

 times. If this be so, it is hard to see why Victoria should 

 have escaped the same experience ; and I think that we are 

 entitled to this opinion whether the local evidence is accepted 

 as sufficient or not. 



