PRnSICKNTS ADUKKSS. 9 



TnK SoiiMAKiNK 8r,oPE OF New South Walks. 

 (Plates i. ami ii.) 

 ( I ) TJie y<)tiniecliau (J w rant. 



First we discuss the cuirent, because without a knowledge of 

 it the continental shelf cannot be properly undeistood. 



Past Sydney there flows south a warm and rapid current well 

 known to sailors and fishermen. In the days before steam it 

 sometimes happened that inward bound ships, if becalmed off the 

 Heads, might be carried out of sight before the wind permitted 

 them to regain their position. Now coasting steamers trading 

 north hug the laud to avoid the stream, while southward bound 

 vessels kee}» a good offing to benefit by the current in their 

 favour. 



This great current is swung in and out by the on and offshore 

 winds, retarded and even superficially reversed or submerged by 

 southerly gales, and accelerated by northerly winds. I am 

 informed by Capt. W. A. Bennett, a local Government pilot, 

 that in exceptional circumstances, after the current has been 

 "banked up" for several days by heavy southerly gales, it may 

 attain a maximum velocity of four knots. 



Neither its origin nor its conclusion has been satisfactorily 

 determined. Two recent maps* give contradictory views of its 

 course. It has been assumed, rather than proved, that tins 

 current is derived from the South Equatorial current, whose 

 path after encountering the Melanesian Islands is indefinite. 

 It is thought to vanish in the south of the Tasraan Sea. Wilkes 

 states tliat it frequently turns into Bass Strait, after which it is 

 lost in the sea to the west of Tasmania or mingles with the Polar 

 current. On the contrary, Hepworthf considered that this 

 current is deflected from the Australian coast, between the 31st 



* Halligan, These Proceedings, xx<i. , PI. lii.; and Dannevig, Journ. 

 Hoy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xli., p. 43. 



i" Hepwoith, Journ. Roy. Soc. N. S.Wales, xxxii., 1898, p. 122. 



