BY RICHARD HELMS. 359 



Not more than a few liimdred yards below the eastern end of 

 this moraine-dam a moraine of the general type expands over the 

 whole width of the valley and fills it to nearly where it in crossed 

 by the Snowy River. Rising crescent-shaped, with an even 

 sweep and moderately declining talus upwards of twenty to 

 twenty-five feet above the valley, it is about a quarter of a mile 

 wide and probably half a mile long. Heavy granite boulders of 

 all sizes lie piled up together, intermixed in places with some of 

 slate. Irregularly deposited as they are, they form a more or less 

 evenly directed incline, with some of the largest rock masses 

 protruding above it. The whole spreads in the distinctive fan- 

 like shape and diverging ridges, and wedges out at the lower end. 

 Low shrub vegetation covers it here and there, particularly at the 

 upper end and where the interstices are filled up ; grass hides the 

 stones, but a great many patches are still nude and probably have 

 not altered much in appearance since first the rubble was left 

 there, except perhaps that weathering has rounded the surfaces of 

 the boulders, which is specially noticeable with the slate frag- 

 ments. A shallow lake at its upper end has found an outlet 

 through these rubble masses and discharges its water meander- 

 ingly through them into the infant waves of the Snowy River 

 below. This lake is not above a few feet deep in the centre, and 

 its origin is simply the effect of the moraine below it having 

 dammed the valley ; consequently it was the result of ice action, 

 but in a different way from that in which Lake Merewether was 

 formed. 



My examinations can by no means be considered exhaustive 

 even as far as the plateau is concerned, and no doubt many more 

 interesting features are likely to be found upon it. Besides that, 

 there is nearly the whole of the western side of the Main Range 

 and its extent as far as Kiandra (nearly 50 miles), so to say, 

 scientifically unexplored, and offering an extensive field for further 

 investigation. No doubt at the western side of the highest peaks 

 the most favourable locality exists for new discoveries. The only 

 moraine deposit I have examined on the western side is the small 

 peninsula that almost divides Lake Albina. This lake owes its 



