Vol. 52.] GLACIAL ACTION IN AUSTRALIA. 299 



(b) Extra- Australasian. 



The Permo-Carboniferous glaciation of Australia and Tasmania 

 was perhaps homotaxial with that of Southern Africa and India. 

 In Southern Africa Mr. G. W. Stow and Dr. Sutherland have 

 described glaciated blocks associated with the Karoo or Ecca Beds. 

 Mr. E. J. Dunn in 1872 discovered glacial conglomerates, the 

 Dwyka Conglomerates, at Weltevreden Farm, near the junction of 

 the Vaal and Orange Rivers ; moreover, he has told me that in 

 1885 he discovered a striated pavement at the junction of these 

 rivers, and was of opinion that the movement of the ice had been 

 from south to north. This pavement is less than 1000 feet above 

 the sea. The shales underlying the large boulders in the con- 

 glomerate are described by him as being distinctly indented. This 

 is in lat. 29° S., long, about 23° 40' E. Mr. Dunn has also told 

 me that he found a specimen of Gangamopteris 5 inches in length 

 in the Lower Karoo Beds above the Dwyka Conglomerates. 



In India evidence of glacial action in Permo-Carboniferous time 

 was first observed by Dr. "W. T. Blanford, and subsequently similar 

 evidence has been collected by many other observers in the Talchir 

 Group, the Salt Range Group, the boulder-beds at Bap in "Western 

 Rajputana, and the Panjah Conglomerates of Kashmir. 1 



Mr. Eedden 2 states that at Irai, near Chanda, the Talchir Boulder- 

 beds rest upon compact Pern Limestones. His statement is as 

 follows : — ' For a length of 330 yards along the river's bank this 

 underlying rock is exposed, displaying a large surface, polished, 

 scratched, and grooved after the fashion so familiar to glacialists. 

 The surface has a slope of 12°-15° to the west, obliquely overcutting 

 the strata, which have a dip of 8° to the west-south-west. The 

 striae and grooves run in long parallel lines, having directions be- 

 tween north-east and north-north-east, oblique to the slope of the 

 surface ; and, from the manner in which the rock is affected at the 

 edges of the few planes of jointing, it can be inferred that the move- 

 ment was up the slope The actual conditions are so far con- 

 firmatory of the view we have been led to — of an ice-raft being 



-drifted against and impelled up an opposing rock-surface It 



would appear that the freighted ice-mass had travelled a long 

 distance from the south-west through the Utnur and Edlabad 

 (Idulabad) districts, where rocks occur of the same composition as 

 that of the several boulders/ 



■ The latitude of Irai is 19° 53', elevation under 900 feet ; the 

 most southerly position of the Talchir Boulder-bed is stated to be 

 latitude 17° 20', and its altitude is given as only a little above the 

 level of the sea. 



Near Pokaran a similarly-glaciated pavement is stated to exhibit 



1 'Geology of India,' 2nd ed. 1893, Strati graphical and Structural, 

 R. D. Oldham, pp. 120-121, 124, 135, 157-160, 198-201, etc. T. Oldham, 

 Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. ix. (1872) p. 324 ; and W. T. Blanford, ibid. 

 pp. 321-325. 



2 Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. viii. (1875) p. 17. 



