The Bluff at Barwon Heads. 133 



notice, that while the old land .surface at the base is quite 

 level, the conglomerate bed rises from A to B in that section. 

 Other similar- beds lie above this one, none lying horizontal^. 



The lava flow is not seen to the west of the Barwon Head- 

 land (B), but some beds of clay, of volcanic origin probably, 

 though destitute of basalt boulders, are to be seen at two 

 levels. 



On the beach at t\ which is about three hundred yards 

 distant west of the last clitf, a bed of rough conglomerate 

 is being broken up by the waves. This is beneath the 

 horizon of the lava flow at B, but it nevertheless contains 

 plenty of basalt boulders. Amongst other rocks there are 

 quartz pebbles, and broken shells are plentiful. The stratum 

 is about three feet thick, ami it lies between beds of sand- 

 stone. Where the scour of tlie .sea has worn down the 

 conglomerate to a smooth flat floor, its varied materials set 

 in a hard matrix give to it the appearance of a gigantic 

 brawn. 



The Barwon Head beds must be either late Tertiary or 

 Pleistocene. When they were forming, Bass's Strait extended 

 northwards of the present coastline. Subsequently the area 

 rose again, and when the present clifl" tops were probably 

 .seventy to ninety feet lowei' than they are now, one extension 

 of Lake Connewarre southward covered them, and the silt 

 from its floods spread their soil over the barren sand rock. 

 More tilting up of the strata drove back the lake waters to 

 the north ; or it may be that the Barwon cut through the 

 sandstone ridge that lay between the lake and the sea, and 

 thus let out and lowered the waters of Connewarre, until 

 they approximated their surface levels to that of the ocean 

 into which thev were di.scharo;ed. 



