NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 539 



had shelter from the sea-breezes and gales. That shelter could 

 only liave been afforded by a greater stretch of land clothed with 

 hardy shrubs, lying to the seaward of the midden, than there is at 

 present. This recession of the shore line is not in my opinion 

 owing to any alteration of the sea-level ; but, in consequence of 

 the destruction of the vegetation in this neighbourhood, the wind 

 has largely and is still deporting this sand dune, and so has 

 allowed the sea to regain an area which it had formerly yielded 

 to the land."* 



Mr. Mitchell also exhibited several stone tomahawks and flints 

 which, together with some fragmentary bones and ashes, were 

 exhumed from the midden in question ; also the fossils referred 

 to in his Note read at the last Meeting of the Society, when he 

 was unable to be present. 



* From a more recent examination of the Bellambi middens I conclude 

 that the stone heaps, referred to above as probably indicating the sites of 

 graves, are old ovens, as suggested by Mr. Froggatt at the time my note 

 was read. 



