The Glacial Period in Australia. 43 
Arr. X—A Contribution to M eteorology. 
[Read 11th February, 1867.] 
Mr. G. W. Groves read a paper with the above title, in 
which he sought to prove. the correctness of his weather 
prophecies, and ascribed to the “Science of Terrestial 
Magnetism” certain principles upon which his calculations 
were based. 
Art. XI.—On the Glacial Period in Australia. By the 
Rev. J. E. Tentson Woops, F.LS., F.G.S., &e. 
[Read at the Annual Conversazione of the Royal Society, March 4, 1867.] 
I owe some apology to the Society for the brief and scat- 
tered notes on this subject, which I bring before their notice 
this evening ; but I trust they will see that it contains the 
germs of what is of the utmost importance to science, not 
only in Australia, but the scientific conclusions of many 
eminent men of Europe. It is well known that what is 
termed the glacial period has occupied a very prominent 
position in the researches of geologists at home. I need not 
particularize now what is ordinarily understood by the term, 
for most of my hearers will be familiar with the facts to 
which I refer. It appears that during the close of the 
tertiary period Europe, and indeed we may say the whole of 
the northern hemisphere, has been visited with a climate 
which is only now equalled by what is seen in Greenland 
and the Arctic regions. What that is will be best under- 
stood by Dr. Rink’s paper in vol. xxii. of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society s journal, p. 143. Not only have such snowy 
regions as the Alps been the sources of glaciers, which have 
extended far beyond their present limits, but such temperate 
regions as the south of Hngland have been visited by floating 
icebergs. Large masses of drift and boulder till have been 
strewed all over Great Britain ; projecting rocks have been 
grooved, striated, and ground down; and in Scotland the 
evidence is such that nothing short of an immense system 
of glaciers will explain the evidence presented by that 
country. 1 need not go into the details of all this. They 
are so well known now as to be found in every popular 
manual of science.- They have caused quite a revolution in 
our received explanations of terrestrial phenomena, and have 
in turn themselves become the subject of various theories. 
