BY niOFKSSOR SIR T, W. E. DAVID, KIJ.E., KTf 



135 



As regards the stone tomahawks, two were 

 found at 11 feet below mean high water mark, in a 

 sump hole, and are said to have been found in peat, 

 or on the surface of the peat. Peaty beds were in- 

 tersected there at various levels, the lowest bed 

 occurring at 10 feet below low water. Numerous 

 stumps of swamp mahogany {Eucalyptus botry- 

 oules), mahogany {Eucalyptus resinifera), honey- 

 suckle {Banksia scrrata) , occurred in situ in the 

 peat, representing a submerged forest. One of the 

 banksia stumps at 10 feet below low water level, 

 that is, PC about 14 ft. below high water, showed clear 

 evidence of having been burnt off at the top, while 

 in situ. The roots were also charred. The burnt 

 stump is not, in itself, conclusive evidence of the pre- 

 sence of man, as the fire may have been due to na- 

 tural causes. In connection with this, it may be 

 mentioned that in a bore put down by a geological 

 party from the University of Sydney, with the as- 

 sistance of Mr. G. H. Halligan, charcoal was found, 

 obviously caused by a contemporaneous fire, at about 

 60 feet below sea level, near the southern end of 

 the bridg.; over the Narrabeen Lagoon, about 7 miles 

 north of Sydney Heads. Had only one stone toma- 

 hawk been found at Shea's Creek, at 10 feet below 

 high water mark, it might have been argued that it 

 was accidentally dropped overboard from a canoe, 

 but the finding of no less than four between 7 and 11 

 feet below high water mark, taken in conjunction 

 with the fact that the bones of the dugong, now 

 buried to a depth of 7 feet below high water, under 

 estuarine clays and peat, had been hacked by 

 aborigines, is good proof that sea level in that 

 locality has risen considerably to the extent of at 

 least from 7 to 11 feet since the imbedding of the 

 tomahawks. When it is considered that tidal ob- 

 servations in various harbours around Australia 

 and Tasmania show no appreciable variation in sea 

 level for the past fifty years, a variation of sea level, 

 in so relatively stable an area as that of Botany Bay, 

 of from 7 to 11 feet, probably indicates an antiquity 

 of not less than a few thousand years. 



Captain S. A. White (38) and Professor W.ilter 

 Howchin (13) state that at the Reedbeds, near Ful- 

 ham. South Australia, the sands and clays, on being 



