Vol. 60.] THE GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF TASMANIA. 37 



4. A Contribution to the Glacial Geology of Tasmania. By 

 J. Walter Gregory, D.Sc, F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of 

 Geology in Melbourne University, Victoria. (Read December 

 2nd, 1903.) 



[Plates VII & VI 11.] 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Introduction 37 



II. The Geology and Topography of the Area '61 



III. Previous Records 38 



IV. The Glacial Deposits of the King and Linda Valleys ... 43 

 V. The Origin of the King-River Glacier 48 



VI. The Range of the Pleistocene Glaciation 49 



VII. The Age of the Glaciation 52 



I. Introduction. 



The existence of Pleistocene glaciation in Southern Australia has 

 been so often affirmed on unsatisfactory evidence, that the assertion 

 of a recent glaciation in Tasmania has been received with doubt. 

 Two years ago I read through the literature on the glaciation of 

 Tasmania, and came to the conclusion that, except for such traces 

 of high-level glacial action as those at Mount Sedgwick, recorded 

 by E. J. Dunn and T. B. Moore, and those near the summit of 

 Mount Ida, recorded by Officer, Balfour, and Hogg, the evidence 

 consisted of material that was either not of glacial origin, or was 

 due to glacial action at some Upper Palaeozoic date. The advocates 

 of a low-level, recent glaciation in Tasmania were men who had 

 apparently received no special geological training, and who had 

 not written other papers by which the value of their geological 

 observations could be tested. The professional and the trained 

 geologists were almost unanimous in denying the existence of signs 

 of recent ice-action in the lower valleys of Tasmania. 



II. The Geology and Topography or the Area. 



It may be advisable here to introduce a short statement of the 

 geological structure and physical geography of that part of Tasmania 

 iu which the deposits described as glacial occur. Most of them 

 have been recorded from the country beside the West-Coast Range, 

 and the western part of the Central Plateau of Tasmania. The 

 West-Coast Range runs north and south, at a distance of 20 to 

 25 miles from the western coast of Northern Tasmania. It consists 

 of a series of isolated masses of coarse conglomerates and quartzites, 

 of Devonian age. These masses are parts of a formerly-continuous 

 sheet, which has now been reduced to a series of disconnected 



