14 
but above them for sixteen or twenty miles inland there is 
underneath the surface soil a thick deposit of marine shells. 
They are of recent appearance, some preserving their colouring 
matter. I have examined many of these beds and thousands of 
the shells from them, and I have found them all similar to the 
shells at present existing on the coast and not one extinct 
species amongst them. All scientific men will appreciate this 
when I mention the names of the commonest forms. They are 
Venus aphrodina or scalarina, Bulla australis , Cerithium granarium, 
Turbo undulatus, Phasianella tritonis , Nerita atrata , Trochocochlea 
constricta , T. australis , Carinidea aurea , Glanculus undatus , C. 
nodoliratus , Euchelus badius , Thalotia conica, Bank i via varia7is , 
Patella tramaserica , Ilaliotis ncevosa, Mactra rufescens, Anapa 
triquetrum , Tellina deltoidiales , Tellina albinella , Mesodesma 
erycina , Bupellaria crenata , Mytilus latus, Ampularina fragilis , 
etc., etc., etc. All these are the common littoral shells of South 
Australia. If there be any difference it is in this, that the 
fossils are of larger size than those common on the coast. 
From this I concluded, at one time, that the climate of the later 
pliocene period was warmer. On the west coast of Australia 
there is a recent upheaval of land. Eecent shells of the 
pliocene period were sent to me from a limestone quarry at 
Freemantle. These fossils included many which, as far as I 
know, are only found living in the tropics. 
Besides the occurrence of recent shells in large beds at a 
considerable distance from the sea and at heights very much 
above the present sea level, the general aspect of the land is 
such as to suggest recent upheavaL of a slow kind. The shore 
is low-lying and flat. Outliers of eolian rocks are found with 
traces of marine action upon them. There are immense sandy 
beaches and sand dunes along the coast, with large salt lagoons 
and marshes extending to some considerable distance within the 
land. These salt lakes are surrounded with beds of marine 
shells, and it is quite evident that some of the mollusca lived 
and died there long after the lagoon was separated from the sea, 
though there are none living in them now. 
All these appearances differ in every way from what is 
observed upon the north-east coast. The land abuts on the sea 
for the most part abruptly. There is not the faintest sign of 
any upheaval in the form of raised beaches or any marine 
remains within the margin “of the present known beach. Wher- 
ever the land is low-lying and flat it is covered with alluvial 
deposits either derived from the rivers or from ordinary weather- 
ing. A very large part of the coast line is, as I have already 
said, abrupt, and does not even offer a narrow beach of sand 
between the ocean and the steep acclivities of the ranges which 
rise above the waves. Besides this, the whole contour of the 
coast line is such as to suggest subsidence instead of upheaval. 
If we "were suddenly to plunge any part of the Dividing Bange 
some 500 feet below the present level, what would be the 
result ? Why, the Main Bange would rise abruptly out of the 
