﻿262 GLACIAL BEDS or CA.MBEIAN . [May 1908, 



of disturbance to those described by Mr. Howchin. These deposits 

 had been regarded as Permian, on the strength of the resemblance 

 of the associated beds to some of those associated with the Upper 

 Carboniferous of Kashmir ; more recently, tbeir assumed glacial 

 origin had been used to correlate them with the glacial beds 

 of Cambrian age in Australia, China, and elsewhere. As no 

 fossils had been found, there was little to choose between these 

 two guesses ; but the fact that a glacial origin had been accepted 

 as a satisfactory working hypothesis, by observers who had studied 

 them in the field, might be accepted as presumptive evidence in 

 favour of the correctness of Mr. Howchin's conclusions. 



Mr. G. W. Lampltjgh observed that the descriptions of the 

 bouldery rocks contained in the first paper, and even the specimens 

 and photographs exhibited in illustration of it, would apply, with 

 very slight alteration, to some portions of the Dwyka ' tillite ' (to 

 use the term proposed by Prof. Penck) of South Africa. Similar 

 beds of older date than the Dwyka had also been recently dis- 

 covered in South Africa. No agency other than glaciation was 

 known which was capable of producing rocks of this character. 

 Their thickness, continuity, and sameness of composition, however, 

 far exceeded that of any post- Tertiary glacial deposit known to 

 the speaker, and seemed still to require explanation. 



If rocks of this kind were dragged and distorted by earth- 

 movement, it was very probable that some degree of disruption 

 would occur at their junction with strata of diflerent composition ; 

 and the Authors of the second paper appeared to have found some 

 evidence for this. But the matter was of secondary consequence, 

 and did not touch the essential characteristics of the rock. The 

 problems raised by the presence of these ancient ' tillites ' in the 

 Southern hemisphere were of the highest importance to geologists, 

 and all new information bearing on the subject would be eagerly 

 welcomed. 



Mr. A. W. EoGERs said that those specimens that showed the 

 pebbles in the matrix were very like the Dwyka ' tillite ' of Cape 

 Colony, in places where that rock had been involved in mountain- 

 folding; and Mr. Howchin's description of the Australian expo- 

 sures would fit not only the Dwyka ' tillite', but that in the Table- 

 Mountain Series also. The absence of a striated floor was 

 characteristic of the three ' tillites ' of difi'erent ages in Cape 

 Colony, where they rested conformably upon older rocks. The 

 repeatedly-jointed pebbles were also a very characteristic feature 

 of the Cape ' tillites,' even where the rocks had not been folded. 



Dr. A. P. YoTJNG remarked that the bed of the Baltic, covered 

 by the Scandinavian glaciers when they forced their way over on 

 to the North German plain, would, in his opinion, if exposed give 

 sections of Boulder-Clay comparable as regards thickness with those 

 now described; and that the floor of the ground-moraine, formed 

 mostly of contemporaneous deposits, would in general be free from 

 scratches. 



Mr. C. B. HoRwooD observed that, as he was familiar with the 



