4A The Glacial Period in Australia. 
Some have wished to account for them by supposing a cap 
of ice to have formed in the Arctic regions sufficient to 
reduce the whole temperature of Northern Europe. Others 
have proposed various modifications of the land of South 
Europe to account for the facts. One very eminent geolo- 
gist, Professor Ramsay, considers the change in climate to 
have been so vast and general that it can only be explained 
by supposing the earth to have revolved upon a different 
axis at that time; for observe, the appearances are not con- 
fined to Kurope. Even as far as the tropical latitudes, such 
as the West Indies, the effects of extreme cold are perceived 
in the later tertiary geology. It is not my business now 
to specify these theories, but I wish to call your attention to 
the fact that the universality of a period of cold seems to be 
questioned by none ; and even Australia is supposed not to 
have been exempted from it. Indeed, Dr. Joseph Hooker 
accounts for the antarctic flora, or more properly our alpine 
flora, in this manner; and the prevalence of the glacial 
period, even in Australia, forms a prominent feature in the 
graceful theory of Dr. Darwin, and the speculations of his 
numerous supporters. Now, this is the question to which 
I wish to call your attention this evening—Has this theory 
of a glacial period for all the world been borne out by 
observations in Australia? Of course we do not expect such 
evidence as the groovings and striations of icebergs, drift, 
and “till” or roches moutonnées. ‘These signs do not extend in 
the northern hemisphere below the 40th parallel of latitude. 
But do we find evidence of extreme cold? On the contrary, 
we find evidence of extreme heat, or at least a heat almost 
tropical in South Australia, and as a consequence a sub- 
tropical fauna. I do not propose to specify the instances 
upon which these conclusions are based, but I will mention 
a few of the most striking. In the first place, every geologist 
on becoming acquainted with our tertiary fauna is struck 
with its climacteristic resemblance to the fauna now existing 
in the Philippine seas and Indian archipelago. It is not 
that the shells and corals are similar, but the genera are 
such as are found principally in tropical or subtropical 
regions. I refer now to the extinct fauna and to our earlier 
tertiary beds, where any species, if they exist now, do so in | 
very different localities. 1 may mention as instances of this 
Limopsis Belchert, which is very common in the miocene 
beds. Professor M‘Coy, in the “ Annals of Natural History,” 
states that only a few specimens have ever been found, and 
