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line of argument. The Munno Para Drifts, though regarded 

 non-fossiliferous, and consequently with great probability were 

 of fresh water origin, yet they present features which should 

 lead one to a somewhat modified decision. The waters with 

 which these Drifts are surcharged in five cases out of six are 

 found to be impregnated less or more with saline matter, some 

 of them to an extent altogether rendering them inappropriate 

 to animal use. Such being the case, an impartial juryman 

 would naturally conclude had the beds in question been of 

 glacial — which amounts to the same as their being of fresh- 

 water origin — being aware also that the waters with which by 

 far the greatest extent of these beds is at present, and has 

 been for thousands of years past, surcharged, must necessarily 

 be rain-water, that they should not now so frequently produce 

 waters of a saline character. Secondly — Pieces of charred 

 timber, analagous to that still growing in the adjacent hills, hare 

 on several occasions been found by me imbedded in these 

 deposits at a depth of twelve feet from the present surface, 

 proving, pretty conclusively to my mind at least, that glaciers 

 did not occupy the summits of the Crawler hills at the period 

 of their growth, as none of the present species of the gum tribe 

 could have withstood the severe cold which necessarily must 

 then have prevailed. No striated pavements, either, or trans- 

 ported boulders, presenting the least sign of ice-action, have 

 as yet been discovered throughout the entire area of the drift 

 of Munno Para or neighbouring hills, though real water- 

 worn pebbles are found to occupy a position nearly in every 

 section where the base of the formation is exposed, as it thins, 

 out against the western slope of the hills. 



Such is a brief outline of the evidence Munno Para supplies- 

 as to the glacial, or fresh- water origin of our South Australian 

 drift deposits. Whilst the drifts of Munno Para yield nothing 

 that could warrant the assumption that the drift formations of 

 the colony were the outcome of a cold and pluvial period ; yet 

 we have, nevertheless, slight evidences of ice action presented 

 in a few places throughout the Province such as the striated 

 pavement at " Hallett's Cove," and the transported boulders 

 associated therewith. But the scanty evidence that these 

 mere outliers of information render, ought for the 

 present to be accepted with great caution. The phenomena 

 of striation of rock surfaces and boulders of foreign cha- 

 racter have often been found to have arisen apart from the 

 direct outcome of glaciation ; and, therefore, I am for the 

 present inclined to regard them as such ; and although the 

 conditions under which our drift deposits are laid down be 

 still, at least to me, an inscrutable enigma, nevertheless I will 

 venture to put forth a theory, which, though not new to science, 



