256 The American Geologist. April, isou 
ly soft and fine homooeneons mud without signs of lamina- 
tion. The rocks inchide pohshed or angular pebbles, blocks 
over a ton in weight down to fine pebbles, and are various 
granites, gneiss, quart2)tch-,niica schists, and slates, all of for- 
eign origin. The larger blocks of granite or quartzyte general- 
ly occur singly, as if they had been quietly dropped on the soft 
nmddy floor from floating ice. Their polished sides plainly 
indicate ice action. 
It is possible that some of the thick conglomerate beds of 
the vicinity of Mts. Tyndall, Lyell, and Owen, in which marks 
of ice action have been recently discovered by Messrs. Dunn 
and Moore, may yet prove to be Permo-Carboniferous. 
NEW ZEALAND. 
The New Zealand geologists do not recognize any glacial 
action in their field analogous to what has been described in 
Australia and Tasmania. They ascribe the earliest known phe- 
nomena of this sort in New Zealand to the Tertiary and possi- 
bly Cretaceous. It is a matter of great significance that they 
refer the most vigorous glaciation to the later Tertiary. 
I have not referred to other signs of ice action, in all the 
jirovinces spoken of. which are more nearly referable to the 
(jreat Ice Age, as commonly understood, just preceding the 
later Quaternary. That is far more consequential than what 
has been mentioned, so that it deserves a separate article; and 
it was more significant in New Zealand than elsewhere. Gla- 
ciers still remain there, along the Southern Alps, in dimen- 
sions and interest fully equal to those in Switzerland. Near 
the southern part of the larger island, the high mountains are 
intersected by fjords, which may have been filled with glaciers 
in the earlier period: but the proofs of such presence are en- 
tirely wanting. 
RELATION OF GLACIATION TO CHANGES OF THE FLORA. 
Mr. Johnston believes that the glacial epochs harmonized 
with great cycles of change in the plant life of Australia and 
Tasmania. Thus the original Carboniferous flora contained 
the following genera, none of which reappeared in the strata 
overlying the boulder deposit, namely, Glossopteris, Ganga- 
mopteris, Noeggerathiopsis, Schizoneura. and Lepidodendron. 
