AN1STYEESAEY ADDEESS. 21 



Besides tlie red clay, there is sometimes a fine cream-coloured 

 paste, which scarcely effervesced with acids, and dried into a 

 light impalpable white powder. This turned out to consist 

 almost entirely of the frustules of Diatoms. Mixed with them 

 were other curious organisms. 



K~ear the edge of the Antarctic ice-pack were found pebbles of 

 quartz and felspar, and small fragments of mica slate, chlorite 

 slate, clay slate, gneiss, and granite in pure sand and greyish mud, 

 believed to be the result of the melting of ice. As no such 

 materials were seen on the icebergs, they must have come from 

 the base, which melts away first when in contact with the rising- 

 temperature of the water. 



I have recently obtained some data respecting our part of the 

 Pacific. 



Between Kerguelen Island and Melbourne, the Globigerina 

 ooze had a depth of 1,800 to 2,150 fathoms, and the red clay a 

 depth of 2,600, and about 30 miles eastwards from Montagu 

 Island, on our !New South "Wales coast, the 100 fathom ledge 

 was found to go down precipitously to 2,200 fathoms. 



Peschel's conjecture that Xew Zealand, Isew Caledonia, and 

 Australia formed one continent, with an African form, receives 

 some support from the nature of the coasts. 



I may remark that many years ago, observing that the land, back 

 of the Illawarra, fell in a precipitous escarpment to the level of 

 that district, which was succeeded by indications of further sub- 

 volcanic escarpments, I requested Admiral (then Captain) 

 Erskine, R.N., to be so good on his next passage south to sound 

 off Kiama, which he obligingly did, and informed me that there 

 was a great fall, as I had conjectured, at about 25 to 30 miles off 

 the land. 



Prom a letter written by Dr. Von Willemoes-Suhm to Dr. 

 Petermann, dated Cook's Straits, 25th June, 1874, we learn that 

 the depth to the eastward of Sydney increased rapidly to 80, 290, 

 600, and 1,000 fathoms. On the 13th June they had returned off 

 he Australian coast (in 34° 19' S. and 151° 31' E.), and in 410 



