1865.] WOODS — ATTSTEALIAIT TEETIAEIES. 389 



the Mle, wliere "we may expect to detect the vestiges of his earliest 

 abode. It is there where the necessaries of life are produced by 

 nature in the greatest variety and profusion, and obtained with the 

 smallest effort — there where climate exacts the least protection against 

 the vicissitudes of the weather — and there where the lower animals 

 which approach man nearest now exist, and where their fossil 

 remains turn up in the greatest variety and abundance. The earliest 

 date to which man has as yet been traced back in Europe is probably 

 but as yesterday in comparison with the epoch at which he made his 

 ajjpearance in more favoured regions. 



The large question which these reflections concern, is at the j)re- 

 sent time folloAved up with the keenest intelligence and with the 

 closest scrutiny over a large portion of Eiirope. But in the tropical 

 regions, which promise to be the most fertile of results, the ground 

 has been barely broken. The observations of Eussegger in the 

 valley of the Nile would seem to have fallen into that oblivion 

 which shrouded the shrewd observations of Frere on the Hoxnc im- 

 plements, until they were brought to Hght by the researches of Mr. 

 John Evans. In India also the inquiry, begun so auspiciously 

 nearly thirty years ago, appears to have stagnated in later days, and 

 to require a fresh impulse. The important discoveries of Captains 

 Speke and Grant will assuredly attract explorers, until the affluents 

 which feed the lake out of which the White Nile flows are traced 

 to their sources. It is incredible that that great river should run 

 for fifteen or seventeen hundred miles, often through alluvial de- 

 posits, ancient and modern, without yielding traces -of its former 

 population. In the interest of the general investigation, I have 

 therefore thought it might be useful to bring together the facts and 

 speculations which are set forth in the preceding observations, as a 

 guide to future inquiry. 



Apeil 5, 1865. 



Henry Clark Barlow, M.D., JSTewington Butts, S.E. ; Townshend 

 Monckton Hall, Esq., Pilton Parsonage, near Barnstaple ; John 

 Lawson, Esq., C.E., 34 Parliament Street, S.W. ; WiUiam Milnes, 

 Esq., Blackheath, Kent, and Yeolm Bridge, South Devon; J. Samuel 

 Perkes, Esq., C.E., Belvedere House, West Dulwich, S. ; and Minos 

 Claiborne Vincent, Esq., C.E., Erankfort, Ohio, U.S., were elected 

 Eellows. 



The following communications were read : — 

 1. On some Teetiaey Deposits in tlie, Colony of Victoeia, Atjstealia. 



By the Eev. Julian E. T. Woods, E.G.S., E.L.S., &c. With a 



Note on the Coeals ; by P. Maetin Ddncan, M.B., Sec. G.S. 

 (Abridged.) 



Tertiary Deposits of Victoria. — Some time ago (in Nov. 1 859)* 

 I had occasion to lay before the Society an accoimt of a Tertiary 

 formation which extends along a great portion of the south coast of 

 Australia. That formation is characterized, as I then observed, by 



^' See Quart. Journ. vol. xvi. p. 253. 



