46 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



3. The Mitchell River gorge from Moitun Creek downwards 

 has, no doubt, been carved out in post-miocene times, and the 

 drifts and coarse gravels of the terraces, as well as of the country 

 bordering them, have been mainly transported by streams from 

 the northern hills or by the river itself. 



4. On the final elevation of the land at the close of the 

 miocene period, the difference in level between Moitun Creek 

 and the sea does not appear to have been much greater than at 

 present, otherwise the river would have cut a far deeper channel 

 than it has. Say the difference was 150 feet greater, then in 

 such soft material we should expect a wide and deep channel to 

 be cut, which afterwards would be filled up with sediments when 

 the land subsided. There is no evidence of this. At East 

 Bairnsdale, borings have been carried to a depth of 250 feet, or 

 from 180 feet to 200 feet below sea level. Now, at a depth of 

 150 feet, or not more than 50 feet below sea level, eocene shells 

 were struck. These included Clypeaster gippslandicus, a common 

 form in the Bairnsdale limestone. 



Further, the Nicholson and Tambo rivers, which, even now in 

 places, as at Swan Reach, flow betw^een eocene and miocene 

 cliffs, have certainly no deep recent beds beneath them, such as 

 they should have if the country had once been 150 to 200 feet 

 higher and then had subsided to its present level. 



The local evidence is thus opposed to the theory of a former 

 superior elevation of the land, except of course by the amount 

 due to ordinary subaerial denudation. 



