THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 37 



advance may be very considerable, as may be seen in many 

 places along our coast. 



The dunes which are being formed at the present day overlie the 

 older ones unconformably, and do not extend anywhere near where 

 the tracks were found. They are quite bare, and are rapidly over- 

 whelming pasture-land and trees and scrub in their advance. 

 When the first settlers arrived in the Warrnambool district the old 

 consolidated dunes were covered with timber and scrub. Mr. 

 Archibald states that when he first went there, in 1858, sheoaks, 

 Tjlackwoods, and gumtrees of great age were growing all over the 

 present site of the town and quarries. So it seems evident that 

 the accumulation of these older dunes had for some time ceased. 

 The presence of the sheets of limestone overlying them points to 

 the same conclusion, for, taking into consideration the shifting 

 character of the dunes of to-day, the limestone would require a 

 period of rest for its formation. 



If one walks along the coast at Warrnambool, it will be 

 observed that the ^Eolian rocks form jagged and rugged cliffs, 

 dipping landwards at the usual angle. Stacks and isolated rocks 

 appear at some distance from the shore. Unless, as Mr. Dennant 

 has remarked, this is due to merely local circumstances, it must 

 be taken as an evidence of subsidence which has taken place 

 since the formation of these rocks. But at present the whole 

 southern coast of Australia is being upheaved, as shown by raised 

 beaches and other evidences. A considerable amount of vol- 

 canic energy appears to have been manifested along our coasts 

 within a comparatively recent period. Darwin and others have 

 remarked that outbursts of volcanic activity are often accom- 

 panied by subsidence, and it is not improbable that minor 

 oscillations of the relative level of land and sea have taken 

 place within recent, or, at any rate, late Pliocene times, along 

 our coasts. That one subsidence and subsequent elevation 

 has taken place since human habitation began is shown by the 

 present condition of Tasmania. 



The Rev. John Matthew, M.A., has shown that the Australian 

 blacks are not the true aboriginals, but are a mixture of the real 

 aboriginals with Papuans and Malays, these peoples having 

 invaded the country several times from the north. In Tasmania 

 were found the true aboriginals, the Malay and Papuan influence 

 not having extended there, having been arrested by Bass' Straits. 

 So Tasmania must have been peopled long before these in- 

 vasions took place. Considering the very primitive condition of 

 the Tasmanians (Mr. Matthew says they were Palaeolithic), I 

 think it is unlikely that they crossed from the mainland by sea, 

 but that the passage took place when Tasmania was part of the 

 mainland, or, at any rate, at the time when the extent of sea to 

 be crossed was very much less than now. Since then consider- 



