June, 1909.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 23 



as well as many edible univalves ; and the way in which the 

 shells are chipped and broken is characteristic of aboriginal 

 work, apart from the association of charcoal and the stones with 

 which the shell-chipping was done. All these beds are well 

 above high tide mark, though not beyond the reach of excep- 

 tional storms, and through wind agency many of the lighter 

 shells have been redistributed and carried up gradual slopes for 

 considerable distances. This secondary dispersal of some of 

 these shells may account for some of the misconceptions that 

 have arisen, and some of the greater heights that have been men- 

 tioned may possibly be accounted for in this manner. No great 

 antiquity can be allowed here, and geologically " Recent " is all 

 that can be said. 



In the second place there are the undoubted marine deposits 

 underlying the West Melbourne Swamp area and the Carrum 

 Swamp area, and concerning these it will be well to again 

 quote what Mr. Selvvyn says of the area extending east from 

 Port Phillip Bay to the base of Strzelecki's Range : — " Many 

 parts of this area are, I believe, still beneath the sea level, the 

 water having been excluded from them by the successive terraces 

 or beaches of sand, which have been piled up by the combined 

 action of wind and waves, and now form the narrow sandy belt 

 dividing the Carrum Swamp from the sea, known as the Nine- 

 mile Beach. A depression of 15 or 20 feet would be sufficient 

 again to submerge the whole of the above area, and to connect the 

 waters of Port Phillip and Western Port, as was undoubtedly the 

 case during some portion of the Pleistocene period." According 

 to observations made by Mr. A. H. S. Lucas * on the Coode 

 Canal excavations, the marine silt with abundant shells is about 

 7 feet in thickness, and is overlaid by 16^ feet of sands, while 

 the ground surface is 73^ feet above low water level. This 

 would only bring the base of the marine silt to 16 feet and the 

 top of the deposit to 9 feet below present low water — a position 

 which it is quite reasonable to assume would be requisite for such 

 a formation. 



In the northern extension of these beds at Arden-street, North 

 Melbourne, the association of Diprotodon remains of drift origin 

 have already been recorded, t and quoted as evidence for 

 regarding these beds as of Pleistocene age. This is quite in 

 agreement with Mr. Selwyn's remarks, and we are thus able not 

 only to mark down specifically the geological age of these marine 

 silts, but by the evidence of their present position it is possible to 

 very materially discount the views concerning recent elevation of 

 other shell-beds. 



In the third place, then, we may consider such accumulations 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic, vol. xxiii., p. 166, 1887. 

 t Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic, vol. xii., N.S., part l, pp. 112-114, 1899. 



