486 /. T. Jutson : 



cannot be regarded as entrenched meanders ; but are normal 

 bends developed apparently entirely since the uplift. An 

 attached map shows the present course of the river, and that 

 initiated at the commencement of the uplift. The initial 

 course is very straight, and meanders are conspicuous by their 

 absence. Moreover, each bend is characterised by a long, 

 gradually descending spur on the inner side of the curve show- 

 ing that the bend was formed concurrently with the vertical 

 erosion of the stream. Were the bends entrenched meanders, 

 we should exjDect a curve carrying on its inner side, first a 

 broad elevated patch around which the stream originally mean- 

 dered, and then the long, sloping spur due to concurrent 

 lateral and vertical erosion ; but in every case the elevated 

 patch is absent. 



The bold bends of this gorge are explicable on the theory of 

 slow uplift. The elevation was fast enough to allow continuous 

 vertical erosion ; but at the same time, slow enough to permit 

 the river to curve extensively. Had the uplift been rapid, and 

 could the river have adopted the same initial course as that 

 already referred to in the portion now under discussion, then 

 it seems fairly certain that the prominent bends so character- 

 istic here would not have been developed. So far as observed, 

 there is no evidence in the country drained by the Upper Yarra 

 and the Dandenong Creek of any pauses or minor subsidences 

 during the main uplift ; but the purely lateral erosion at the 

 extreme ends of some of the curves in the Warrandyte Gorge, 

 as indicated by some alluvial flats, seems to indicate that the 

 uplift has not continued right to the present time. 



The exact position of the old course of the Yarra cannot be 

 indicated. East of the Brushy Creek it did not apparently 

 cross the line of the Yarra Fault Scarp (except at the Yering 

 Gorge), otherwise further gorges would be in evidence. To 

 the west of the Brushy Creek, its course is antecedent for a 

 short distance, but beyond that it cannot be distinctly traced. 



It is interesting to note how the Yarra River keeps close to 

 the Yarra Fault Scarp. If the sag of the depressed area were 

 greatest close to the scarp, as it appears without doubt to be, 

 then whatever the original course of the stream in the de- 

 pressed area may have been, as the slope towards the scarp 



