the absence of fossils is very inconclusive because, as it happens, 
fossils are equally absent over the country to the south of Norse- 
man also. So far as is yet known this single locality contains all 
the recent marine fossil evidence available, yet while it is admitted 
that the presence of marine shells at a height of about bOO feet 
above sea levels, is ])roof that the land was submerged under the 
sea to that depth, their absence at higher levels is apparently to be 
held to prove that they were laid down at the limit of the submer- 
gerice. The only fair deduction from the facts is that the destruc- 
tion of fossil evidence of the presence of the sea has been extra- 
ordinarily complete, and we appear to have been fortunate in hav- 
ing the Norseman beds preserved at all to prove that there was a 
marine invasion. 
During many journeys through the Goldfields districts the 
writer has become more and more impressed with the belief that 
there is much physiographical evidence to show that the main 
features of the surface relief in the goldfields areas owe their final 
shape prindiially to marine action, and that subsequent subaerial 
erosion has been able to do very little more than slightly modify the 
shape of the country as it was left l)y the receding waters. Also 
that this eviilencc of marine action may be found up to at least 
the 2000 feet level. It has been pointed out by the Government 
Geologist. Mr. Maitland, in his latest sketch of the geology of the 
State, written for the Australian visit of the British Association 
in 1914 ( Geological Survey Bulletin No. fit ), that "By far the 
greater portion of the State is in reality a very extensive plateau, 
averaging about I,-t00 feet in height, though isolated ]>ortions reach 
altitudes aiqiroaching 4000 feet." Mr. Jutsoii gives a map in Bul- 
letin fil, showing the elevations of the portion of the State south of 
the tropic of Cajiricorn, which shows a very small portion over 
2000 feet in height, and a consirlerahle area between 1500 and 2000 
feet, hut the great bulk of the region under 1500 feet. If, there- 
fore the sea reached to the ])resent 2000 feet level, all the land 
above water south of the tro])ics would be parts of the Stirling 
Ranges in the south, and a large island and several smaller ones in 
the northern i)art of the Murchison, ftast Murchison and Mt. 
Margaret Goldfields. It is the object of this paper to discuss the 
physiographical evidence and show how it sustains and corrobo- 
rates the marine theory. 
Inhere is usually a very great similarity in the scenery of our 
Eastern and Central Goldfields. Everywhere we find great plains, 
often extraordinarily evenly level over large areas, with low 
rounded hills or groiqjs of hills rising from them with very gentle 
slopes. A steep slope is rather an excei)tion, though many such 
are to be found without difficulty. Rather frequently, when the 
rock com])osing the hills is a hard one ca])ablc of resisting erosion, 
as in the case of the well-known "jas])er-hars," it stands out in 
