[He failed, however, to perceive the denudation they had 

 suffered in the pre-Kosciusko or pre-Plateau Period.] He 

 also points out (p. 129) that in the Lower Pliocene the shore 

 line of Victoria had been depressed and that 1,000 feet of 

 sediments had been deposited; that in the Upper Pliocene 

 the land surface had gradually risen and that the "leads" 

 had been formed. He also apprehended the fact that the 

 present mighty canons are younger than the Upper Pliocene 

 of the palaeontologists of his time. 



It now remains to be seen what light such facts of obser- 

 vation throw upon the late Tertiary and Pleistocene history 

 of Eastern Australia. 



Uniformitij of plnjsintl <-<»i<lil ions. — It is evident as a 

 result of an examination of the fossils collected from these 

 "leads," that a mild and fairly uniform .'liinate must have 

 extended right from Hobart to north Queensland in Upper 

 Pliocene time. Incidentally this would imply a non-moun- 

 tainous country — one possessed of moderate relief only. 

 The excellent descriptions of, and plates illustrating the 

 fossil fruits of the " leads " in Baron von Mueller's reports 

 reveal the fact that the flora of the "Newer Volcanic" 

 period was quite unlike that of the present day in Eastern 

 Australia. His examination moreover reveals the presence 

 of plants in the Upper Pliocene possessing affinities with 

 certain tropical types of to-day, and the characteristic 

 absence of myrtaceous plants and acacias. Furthermore, 

 the typical flora of the coastal area in Eastern Australia to- 

 day is quite unlike that of the present inland area. During 

 the "Newer Volcanic" period this was not so, because the 

 ** leads" occur indifferently on both present coastal and 

 inland falls. Such a uniformity of floras, coupled with the 

 fact that the fossils occur in leads now occupying both 

 eastern and western falls of the highlands, points irresistibly 

 to the conclusion that the eastern side of Australia in late 



