236 VICTORIA. NEW SOUTH WALES. 



lowered again at ebb. Hence, after heavy rain, the surface 

 water in all the upper parts of the creek is so diluted by the 

 torrent of fresh water from the stream, that it becomes almost 

 fresh ; indeed, at the time of our visit, it was for three or four 

 miles down, which was as far as we went, so little brackish as 

 to be drinkal)le. At a short depth, no doubt, the water was salt. 



Here are the most favourable conditions possible for turning 

 marine animals into freshwater animals ; in fact the change of 

 mode of life presents no difficulty. Below, no doubt, the 

 water is always salt, but the fish find a fluid gradually less and 

 less salt as they rise to the surface. 



We caught the mullets in the almost fresh water, with a net. 

 The oysters were flourishing in the same water, and with them 

 the mussels and crabs ; I even saw an abundance of Medi/sa", 

 and a species of Rhizophora swimming in the creek above the 

 sand-flats, where there was scarcely any salt at all in the water, 

 yet evidently in most perfect health. 



Occasionally, in times of long drought, the water becomes as 

 salt as the sea. The fishermen told me that after sudden very 

 heavy freshets of water from the river, some of the shell-fish 

 sickened and died. He accounted for the presence of numerous 

 dead cockle-shells {Cardium) in the bed of the creek, since he 

 had never found the animals there alive, by supposing that 

 they had all been killed off by some unusual influx of fresh 

 water many years before. 



But beyond all that has been described, and beyond the 

 extreme beauty of its wild and rocky scenery, the Browera Creek 

 has yet another interest ; it was in old times the haunt of nume- 

 rous Aborigines, who lived on its banks in order to eat the 

 oysters and mussels, and the fish. 



On every point or projection, formed where a side branch is 

 given off l)y the main creek, is to be seen a vast kitchen midden 

 or shell mound. So numerous are these heaps of refuse, and so 

 extensive, that it has been a regular trade, at which White men 

 have worked all their lives, to turn over the heaps and sift out 

 the undecomposed shells, for making lime by burning them ; 

 unfortunately the numerous weapons thus found have mostly 

 been thrown away. 



There is now not a single Black on the creek. Many of the 

 mounds are very ancient, and it must have taken a very long 

 time for such heaps to accumulate. Stone hatchet blades are 

 still to be picked up in considerable numbers, and I obtained 

 several. The heaps are very like those at the Cape of Good 

 Hope in appearance, but there were none of the peculiar piles 

 of stones about them, which I noticed at the latter locality. 



The softer layers weathering out from under the harder slabs 



