66 
president’s ADDRESS — SECTION C. 
urged in previous papers,* that a period of high eccentricity of the 
earth’s orbit might produce a pluvial or diluvial epoch, but not a 
glacial, on account of the small quantity of land in the Southern 
Hemisphere. Evidences of glacial action at Kosciusko, Captain Hutton 
contends, do not necessarily imply a glacial epoch for Australia. He 
states (op. vit., p. 341) — “ If now I should be asked, * To what, then, do 
you attribute the ancient glaciers of the Australian Alps r 1 ’ 1 should 
answer, 8 It is more probable that Mount Kosciusko once stood some 
3,000 feet higher than at present, when Tasmania was joined to 
Australia, and Central Australia was perhaps a vast lake, than that 
the temperature of the surrounding ocean should have been reduced 
10 degrees without any apparent cause, which is the only alternative.’ ” 
Captain Hutton quotes (loc.cit.. p.337) the opinion expressed by 
Hr. Cox at the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 
on 27th May, 1885, that there was possible evidence of a colder sea in 
New South Wales at some not very remote period, furnished by the 
occurrence of the recent shell SipJtonalia maxima (Tryon), from an 
estuarine deposit near Newcastle. These shells, exhibited by Mr. 
C. S. Wilkinson, were obtained at depths of from 24 to 60 feet 
below the surface, in sinking through the estuarine deposits of the 
Stockton and Bullock Island and Wickham coal-pits, and the Harbour 
Works near Newcastle. t 
Hr. Cox stated {op. cit., p. 245) — “ Hitherto this species bad only 
been recorded from Tasmania, but he had recently ascertained that 
it existed also on the Victorian coast, near Port Phillip Heads.” 
Captain Hutton, commenting on this statement by Hr. Cox, says— 
“ If S. maxima is associated with other Tasmanian species, most of 
which do not live now so far north as Newcastle, then this will be by 
far the most important evidence of a southern glacial epoch that has 
ever been advanced. But if, on the contrary, it is associated with 
New South Wales shells, as appears to be the case, then this new 
evidence will show that in Tasmania it is a survival of a species once 
more widely spread, and will prove that Tasmania has not undergone 
a glacial epoch since S. ■maxima lived on its shores. * * * * # 
Certainly it by no means gives the idea of a cold-loving form.” 
Speaking of the evidence of glaciation at Ilallett’s Cove, described 
by Professor Tate, and referring to the erratics only, Captain Hutton 
states {op. cit., p. 336)—“ The granite composing these erratics has not 
been described, and 1 am not aware that any attempt has been made 
to trace their origin. l)r. von Lendenfcldt suggests the South Pole, 
but I am afraid it will take a more arduous journey than the ascent 
of Mount Townsend to verify the existence of granite there. J All 
the land that has been examined at present in that direction is 
volcanic ; and if ice-borne erratics had travelled from the Antarctic 
continent to South Australia, we should expect to find them also in 
abundance in. Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Antarctic Islands, and 
that some would be volcanic rocks, which is not the case. We must 
always distrust an attempt to explain an isolated phenomenon by 
means of a widespread cause. If these erratics had been derived 
* N. Zealand Journ. Science, vol. ii., p. 2GG, and Q.J.G.S., vol. xli., p. 213. 
+ Proc. Lin. Soc. N. S. Wales, vol. x., pt. 2, p. 245, 1835. 
+ Granite does occur, however, in the Antarctic regions, v. p. 03 of this paper. 
— ■ T W.E.D. 
