AG The Glacial Period in Australia. 
and those which are not found in the same places are to be 
looked for in warmer localities. The contrast in some cases 
is most marked. Venus strigosa (Sow) is a tolerably common 
shell at Guichen Bay. It is also very common but of much 
larger size in the quaternary deposits. Shells of a size 
equal to that of the fossils are only to be found at Port 
Lincoln, which is in very much warmer seas. Venus aphro- 
dina is the common shell at Robe now ; a variety repre- 
senting, as I believe, Lamarck’s V. aphrodinordes (not 
the shell so named in the National Museum, which is a 
Philippine species). This shell is abundant also at the head 
of Spencer’s Gulf. The fossils at Robe are of a kind only 
found in the warmer climate. One more instance out of 
thousands which I could cite :—A peculiar variety of Bulla 
Australis (called by some naturalists B. striata) is only 
found now in Western Australia. It is only found as a 
fossil in Robe, and the existing species at Port Adelaide 
does not belong to the same variety. I need not detain you 
with more particulars, but I may sum up the whole in this 
announcement—that after carefully considering the subject 
for a period of more than two years, during which thousands 
of fossils and shells have passed through my hands, I am 
convinced that during the glacial period of Europe our con- 
tinent and seas have passed through a subtropical climate, 
or one at least very much warmer than what we experience 
now. ‘This conclusion is formed upon evidence of the same 
nature as that from which they conclude a period of extreme 
cold at home ; and most of the arguments used there apply 
here, but in a inverse order. I believe that the same con- 
clusions are forced upon us by the fossil flora, though none 
of the species discovered here and in Australia have been 
identified. Yet I am sure my botanical friends will agree 
with me in saying that they offer evidence confirmatory of 
a warmer climate prevailing during the time in which they 
erew. In Tasmania this is especially remarkable where 
palms and a sub-tropical flora are found well preserved in 
extensive deposits. ‘The importance of the conclusion to be 
drawn from these facts is obvious. If we had no period of 
extreme cold in the southern hemisphere, then the argu- 
ments or the theories which account for the glacial epoch, on | 
the hypothesis of changes which affected the whole earth, 
must be abandoned. The extent to which such theories 
have been relied upon can hardly be credited by those who 
have not paid attention to the later developments of 
