53 



convinced by the evidence that the material originates from 

 beds now covered by the sea, beds thrown down by the great 

 fault system known to exist, protected to some extent by the 

 deep sea deposits, and lying south of the continental shelf. 

 As a surmise, I should say that just as the great trough faults 

 bf the Dead Sea area have exuded bitumen in places, seen by 

 myself, so the bitumen found on these coasts may be at present 

 escaping from the similar fault planes mentioned." 



Another suggestiton as to its origin may be ventured. 

 The very wide distribution of this substance indicates that 

 ocean currents must be concerned in its distribution, and the 

 wide distribution also suggests that the source is relatively 

 distant. The geology of Kerguelen Island is not well under- 

 stood, but it is known that beds of Tertiary Age, including 

 coals of poor quality, occur there. ( 10 ) It is a region that has 

 been greatly disturbed during Tertiary times, and it is within 

 the range of possibility that conditions may have arisen that 

 were favourable for the distillation of the carbonaceous material 

 into hydrocarbons in parts of this coalfield. Dr. Wade's 

 bitumen-exuding faults may be situated near Kerguelen 

 rather than the southern coast of Australia. It is further to 

 be noted that Kerguelen is in the direct line of the west 

 wind drift, the waters of which are carried up the Western 

 Australian coast as well as along the southern coast of 

 Australia and around the island of Tasmania. If the bitumen 

 originated at Kerguelen the outcrops are probably submarine 

 in position. 



FOSSIL RESIN. 



Two fragments of a fossil resin, broken from a larger 

 mass, were included in the samples sent by Mr. Payne. 

 The example is yellowish in colour and banded. It is rather 

 remarkable that lumps of resin are frequently found on the 

 coast where the pieces of asphaltum occur. At the Brecknell 

 Sandhills, on the southern coast of Kangaroo Island, I found 

 the two in association. Dr. Wade refers the resin to the 

 species "retinite," a variety of copalite. These resins have no 

 genital relationship to the mineral oils, but they may have 

 had a similar geographical origin as that of the asphaltum 

 waifs. If Kerguelen Island be the source, then we must 

 assume that the resins have been derived t from beds of 

 carbonaceous material that have not undergone destructive 

 distillation, whilst those that have yielded the bituminous 

 product, we may assume, have been subjected to such a change. 



(io) See Tate :^ "On the Occurrence of Marine Fossiliferous 

 Rocks at Kerguelen Island," Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., v. 24 

 (1900), p. 105. 



