404 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 



level. The verdict is a matter of some geological importance, for if 

 the view of Agassiz be adopted a direct proof of recent alteration of 

 level is established. 



We were fortunate in surveying Cairns Reef because it is quoted 

 by Agassiz {op. cit., p. 116) as showing, better than any other, the remnants 

 of an old elevated reef. 



The hypothesis of Kent is preferred by us on the following 

 grounds :— Positively — The negroheads do not continue down into 

 the ground but are perched as morainic blocks might be. Jetsam 

 would accumulate on the weather side of the reefs (where the negro- 

 heads are) not on the lee side (where they are absent). Negatively — 

 An elevated reef in course of denudation would commence to wear 

 on the windward side, where the attack is fiercest ; the last surviving 

 remnants should be on the leeward shore. Supposing that the negro- 

 heads are such remnants, why do they survive oniy where they ought 

 earliest to disappear ? The central portions, more than half a mile 

 from either edge, might naturally be expected to remain as more or 

 less solid " mesas " long after the rest had been ground to sand. Such 

 is not the case on Cairns Reef. Again, a former elevated reef should 

 have remained intact beneath the wooded islets like Hope Island ; 

 whereas the only rock there is coral sand rock. 



IV. THE ISLANDS. 



Contrasting the inter-tropical with the extra-tropical coast of 

 East Australia, the northern part is seen to be profusely beset with 

 islands while the southern is left unusually bare. 



In New South Wales the general trend of the coastal ranges 

 {e.g., Macpherson, Hastings, Hunter, and Cambewarra) is at right 

 angles to the coast. Here subsidence on a large scale would result, 

 not in the formation of islands but in the appearance of bold promon- 

 tories like those of the south of Greece. But the subsidence which 

 did occur fell short of this, and merely produced a series of drowned 

 valleys within a remarkably linear coast line. 



But the main trend of the coastal ranges of Queensland is meri- 

 dional, or roughly parallel to the sea, and here the larger subsidence 

 has carved the coast into a series of bays such as Shoalwater Bay. 

 Broad Sound, and Edgecombe Bay — all on the way to island-making. 

 A step farther has resulted in such severances as the Whitsunday, 

 Hinchijibrook, and Albany Passages. 



The dissection of the Queensland coast being greater than that 

 of New South Wales, indicates greater subsidence. 



Two types of islands occur along the Queensland coast. One, a 

 flat wooded island, which the practised eye recognises as a vegitated 

 sandbank of coral origin. In literature they have been described as 

 " cays," but that term is not colloquially used in Queensland. These 

 range from Anchor Cay, in Torres Strait, where the influence of the 

 Fly River terminates coral growth, south to Lady EUiot Island off 

 Bundaberg. It is curious that Captain Cook, when he sighted and 

 named Green and Low Woody Isles, should not have marked them as 



