﻿200 Canaclian Record of Science. 



Proceedings of the Australian Association for the Advance- 

 ment OF Science, 1895. 



Very few countries should be of more interest to Canadians than the 

 large island continent of Australia. Like Canada of some forty years 

 ago, it is a collection of some five or six different colonies professing 

 allegiance to Britain. It is at the present time considering the 

 question of federation, studying our political system, and endeavoring 

 to avoid what they consider its faults. Then its natural history differs 

 in many respects from that of Canada ; its fauna as peculiar as 

 are its aborigines ; the country itself, with its large arid plains, 

 scarcely any large rivers or lakes and a climate quite the opposite 

 to our own. All this excites an interest, which is increased by hearing 

 of the labors of so many earnest and talented workers in the different 

 branches of natural science. The record of these labors in the volume 

 mentioned above is, therefore, a most welcome addition to our 

 scientific literature. 



The meeting held at Brisbane in January, 1895, was presided Over 

 by the Hon. A. C. Gregory, who, for many years, Jield the position of 

 Surveyor-General. His address was upon "The Geographical History 

 of the Australian Continent during its Successive Phases of Geological 

 Development." 



The President, at the close of his address, gives the following 

 summary : " Australia, after its first appearance in the form of a 

 group of small islands on the east, and a larger island on the west, was 

 raised at the close of the Paleozoic period into a continent of at least 

 double its present area, including Papua, and with a mountain range 

 of great altitude. In the Mesozoic times, after a grand growth of 

 vegetation which formed its coal beds, it was destined to be almost 

 entirely submerged in the cretaceous sea, but was again resuscitated in 

 the Tertiary period with the geographical form it now presents. Thus 

 its climate, at the time of this last elevation, maintained a magnificent 

 system of rivers which drained the interior into Spencer's Gulf, but 

 the gradual decrease in rainfall has dried up these water courses, and 

 their channels have been nearly obliterated, and the coiintry changed 

 from one of great fertility to a comparatively desert interior, which 

 can only be partially reclaimed by the deep boring of artesian wells." 



The introductory address by J. H. Maiden, President of Section B, 

 was upon the " Chemistry of the Australian Indigenous Vegetation." 



Professor David's address to Section C deals with the two glaciations 

 observable in Australia. The first in the Permo-Carboniferous, the 

 second in the Pleoscene or Pleistocene time. Baron von Mueller, in 

 Section E, considers the commerce of Australia with neighboring 

 countries in relation to geography. In Section F is an interesting 

 address on the Prehistoric Arts of the Aborigines of Australia. In 

 Section I, the teaching of science in matters of health. Many other 



