Abstract
SINCE my announcement of the discovery of glacier evidences in the Mitta Mitta Valley (“On the Meteorology of the Australian Alps,” Trans. Roy. Soc. Viet., 1884, p. 23), and Dr. von Lendenfeld's subsequent discovery of traces of ancient glaciers on Mount Kosciusko (“On the Glacial Period in Australia,” Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1885, p. 45), an interesting controversy has arisen respecting the nature and extent of such glaciation. Having recently undertaken an exploration of Mount Bogong, the highest mountain in Victoria, in company with Dr. von Lendenfeld, for the purpose of discovering further glacier evidences, and so aiding a solution of this important question, I have much pleasure in submitting the following remarks on the results of that expedition. It may be of interest to review my connection with the controversy as a student of physiography resident in the central part of the Australian Alps. During 1880–83, when studying the flora of the Australian Alps and collecting herbarium specimens for our venerable Nestor of botanic science, Baron von Mueller, it appeared to me that the date of the introduction of the endemic florula of the Australian Alps (whose affinities were so closely Tasmanian) might safely be centred in glacial movements since Miocene times (“Remarks on Flora of Australian Alps,” Southern Science Record, 1885, p. 93), provided geological evidences which would lend support to the hypothesis could be obtained; for, as remarked by the ex-President of the Linnean Society, Mr. Wilkinson, F.G.S., F.L.S., in one of his admirable addresses to the Society (President's Address, Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. ix., p. 1236), the existence of a semi-tropic flora in South-East Australia during Pliocene times and its subsequent banishment from this region is evidence of a great change of climate in Post-Pliocene times.
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On Some Further Evidences of Glaciation in the Australian Alps 1 . Nature 35, 182–184 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/035182b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035182b0