32 Notes on some Evidences of 



that "it is probable that the outlines of all the main drain- 

 age courses of the tertiary period, whether Miocene or 

 Pliocene, were formed early in the former epoch . . . No 

 submergence below the sea to an elevation exceeding 900 feet 

 above the present level appears to have taken place during 

 or since tertiary times. Had there been no lava flows, the 

 general course of the rivers above that elevation would have 

 remained unaltered until the present day." So that the 

 influences which dominated in the carving out of the surface 

 configuration of the Australian Alps during Pleistocene times 

 were certainly sub-aerial ; and, for the reasons assigned in 

 this paper, it appears to me that we must concede the point 

 sought to be established by Mr. Griffiths, in his admirable 

 paper, ff On the Evidences of a Glacial Epoch in Victoria 

 during Post-Miocene Times" — viz., that Australia, as well as 

 South Africa, South America, and New Zealand, partici- 

 pated in a glacial period. 



In another article I hope to adduce further evidences of 

 glaciation in the Mitta-Mitta sources, and also direct further 

 attention to the question of interglacial periods ; but, in con- 

 cluding the present paper, have much pleasure in acknow- 

 ledging the receipt of an interesting paper by Dr. von 

 Lendenfeld, of Sydney,* in which that savant gives the 

 results of his explorations of the Kosciusko plateau during 

 January last, establishing the fact of the glaciation of the 

 highest mountain in Australia, although that gentleman's 

 inferences as to the area over and altitude at which traces of 

 glaciation would be found to occur are somewhat at variance 

 with the evidences herein presented. In tabulating his 

 interesting results, the learned doctor informs us, page 9 : 

 " The climate was then not very cold, so that the glaciers 

 only covered the highest part of the Australian Alps, 

 and were consequently very small." If my evidences 

 are correct, the glaciers would not only have covered the 

 whole of the Australian Alps, but might have extended 

 their influence to the lower levels down the Murray basin. 

 Again, at page 4, it is stated in reference to the snow patches 

 that — " These snow patches are never found in ' deep 

 ravines,' as Mr. J. Stirling states.*!* Snow patches such as 

 those on Kosciusko only lie close to the exposed parts where 



* The Glacial Period in Australia, by E. von Lendenfeld, Ph.D.: Trans. 

 Soc.,N.S.W., Vol. X.,p. 45. 



f Southern Science Record : Remarks on Flora of Australian Alps. 



