Yol. 52.] GLACIAL ACTION IN AUSTRALIA. 



15. Evidences of Glacial Action in Australia in Permo-Carbo- 

 niferous Time. By T. W. Edgeavorth David, Esq., B.A., 

 E.G.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Sydney. 

 (Read February 5th, 1896.) 



[Plate XII.] 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Work done by previous Observers 289 



II. Latest Observations by the Author 294 



III. Correlation of the Glacial Deposits 298 



IV. Provisional Deductions 300 



The subject of which this paper treats has already been traversed 

 by the author in his Presidential address to the Geological Section 

 of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, at 

 its meeting at Brisbane in January 1895. 



The author hopes, however, that the presentation to this Society 

 of a summary of these previous records, — with the addition of his 

 subsequent field-work in 1895, — will be justified by the opportunity 

 now given of a discussion which will be of immense benefit in 

 furthering an important and interesting branch of geological investi- 

 gation. 



The personal observations recorded in this paper are the result of 

 13 years', more or less constant, field-work in Australia. 



I. "Work done by previous Observers. 



The first actual record of evidence of ice-action in Australia is 

 probably that made by Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn in 1859. 1 



The statement is as follows : — ' At one point in the bed of the 

 Inman I observed a smooth, striated, and grooved rock-surface 

 presenting every indication of glacial action. The bank of the 

 creek showed a section of clay and coarse gravel, or drift, composed 

 of fragments of all sizes irregularly interbedded through the clay. 

 The direction of the grooves and scratches is E. and W. in parallel 

 lines ; and though they follow the course of the stream, I do not 

 think they could have been produced by the action of water forcing 

 pebbles and boulders detached from the drift along the bed of the 

 stream. This is the first and only instance of the kind I have met 

 with in Australia, and it at once attracted my attention, strongly 

 reminding me of the similar markings I had so frequently observed 

 in the mountain-valleys of North Wales.' 



These very important observations appear to have been lost sight 



1 ' Geological Notes of a Journey in South Australia from Cape Jarvis to 

 Mount Serle,' by A. R. C. Selwyn, Parliamentary Paper, no. 20, Adelaide, 

 1859, p. 4. 



