Sir Douglas Mawson, who is so well known to glaciologists for his work in the Antarctic—member of Shackleton’s Expedition 1907–08, leader of the Australian Expedition 1911–14 and of the British, Australian and New Zealand Expedition 1929–31—was born at Bradford, Yorkshire, in May 1882. Since 1905 he has been lecturer and professor in geology in the University of Adelaide, and in honour of his 70th birthday anniversary his colleagues, friends and pupils have presented him with this volume of contributions to geology. All members of the British Glaciological Society will wish to be associated with their Australian colleagues in paying honour to their fellow member.

The book consists of sixteen articles, all but one of which deal with geological subjects. It is the exception which is of particular interest to glaciologists, for it is an article on “Pleistocene glaciation in the Kosciusko region,” by W. R. Browne. The Kosciusko plateau, in the south of New South Wales, is the only region in Australia known to contain traces of extensive glaciation. There can now be little doubt that this glaciation is of Pleistocene age, and therefore may be expected to throw some light on the extent and development of the Pleistocene Ice Age in the southern hemisphere. Considering the importance of the questions involved it is surprising how little it has been studied. Glacial features were first reported from the Kosciusko area in 1851, but it was not until fifty years later that the first detailed account was given by Professor David in 1901. Nearly another fifty years passed before further extensive work was undertaken, in 1946 and 1951, by a joint Scientific Advisory Committee of several Australian scientific societies and authorities. The information presented in the Anniversary Volume by Mr. Browne was gathered chiefly on trips to the area in connexion with this investigation.

The article contains a description of the glacial features in the highly glaciated area around Mount Kosciusko, illustrated by a sketch map, and a short concluding paragraph on the interpretation of the observations. The description is too detailed and the map too crowded for satisfactory reading in one’s study ; but it will be invaluable to anyone on the site wishing to get a grasp of the work already done, and of the interpretation reached by previous workers. It is to be hoped that good use will be made of it for this purpose, for a great deal more field-work is necessary before all the information which the region can give has been extracted. Mr. Browne’s interpretation of the observations can be summarized in a few sentences, chiefly in his own words:

“The glaciation of the Kosciusko region is capable of being divided into three episodes. The first was a calotte or ice-cap glaciation, the next was characterized by valley-glaciers, and the last was marked by small cirque and valley-head glaciers. Whether these are all phases of one cycle of glaciation or were independent and distinct and separated by long time-intervals is a debatable question.” Two questions are asked “(a) Were the three glaciations distinct and separated by interglacial stages, or were they all phases of one stage ? (b) With what glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere are they to be correlated, if we assume synchronism of glaciation ?” After a discussion of these questions the following answer is reached: “All the circumstances considered, it seems better to refer the glacial phenomena to three distinct glacial stages than to group them as phases of one glacial stage…. There are at present no reliable bases for correlating these with the Pleistocene glacial stages of Europe and North America, and the best that can be done is to refer them provisionally to the Mindel, Riss and Würm stages respectively.”