A Palæozoic Ice–Age

Abstract

THE account by Dr. Wallace in NATURE (p. 55) of glacial deposits recently discovered in Australia is a most important and welcome addition to our knowledge. But to us the surprising circumstance is that Dr. Wallace appears quite unaware of the fact that this is only an addition to a great series of discoveries, by no means confined to Australia, affording evidence of a Palæozoic ice-age. That the deposits near Sandhurst are Palæozoic may, in the absence of any indication to the contrary, be assumed, since they are clearly similar in position and character to the well-known boulder beds of Bacchus Marsh, and these have been correlated with the strata containing ice-borne fragments, amongst the marine beds west of Sydney and also at Wollongong to the southward, and in Queensland to the north-ward. All these beds have been shown to be upper carboniferous. A good account of the facts known up to 1886 may be found in Mr. R. D. Oldham's paper on the Indian and Australian coal-bearing beds (Rec. Geo. Surv. md. xix. p. 39).