THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 31 



babbles over a rough, bare, boulder-strewn channel. Evidently for 

 some reason the valley is deepening at a more rapid rate than are 

 the neighbouring ones. The explanation of this seems to be 

 fairly simple. The coast, it may be mentioned, is a rough one, 

 and, excepting in sheltered or partly sheltered bays, sandy 

 beaches are absent, and a walk along the coast often entails the 

 expenditure of a considerable amount of energy. To avoid this 

 work footpaths have in some instances been made along the hill- 

 sides far above sea level, and along a path of this nature the 

 track from Lome to the Sheoak Creek runs. On crossing this 

 creek the Cumberland track leaves the coast, and strikes up a 

 valley which shows some peculiar features. It is wide and flat- 

 bottomed ; the hills bounding it are rounded and grass-clad, 

 scrub is almost absent, and the timber sparse. More striking 

 still, however, is the fact that the valley is a dry one. No creek 

 flows down it. There is, it is true, a small gully in the bed, but 

 on walking up the valley it is clear that it is only large enough 

 to carry off the present local drainage from the sides of the valley, 

 and had nothing to do with its formation. For nearly two miles 

 the path runs up this valley, gradually rising as it goes, then 

 suddenly we find the upper end of the valley is cut off by another 

 valley running almost at right angles to it, and about a hundred 

 and fifty feet below it we see the Cumberland River, which 

 enters the sea less than a quarter of a mile below. Evidently the 

 sea has cut back the cliffs till the river was able to run over the 

 lip and find its way to the ocean from this point in a few hundred 

 yards instead of a couple of miles. The river gradient being thus 

 suddenly increased, the stream rapidly cut back up the valley at 

 a rapid rate, and thus the steep cliffs were formed. In the dry 

 valley, the old river course, no more cutting was done, and the 

 slopes were rapidly rounded by the rain. 



One other interesting fact is worthy of notice. The mouth of 

 the dry valley is barely raised above the level of the storm beach ; 

 in other words, the relative level of sea and land has remained 

 constant since the river flowed down its old course — the land has 

 neither risen nor subsided. 



Exchange.— Mr. H. W. Parritt, 8 Whitehall Park, London 

 N., England, is desirous of obtaining Australian Echinoderms and 

 Crustacea, and can offer British and foreign species in exchange. 



Exchange. — Mr. E. Brunetti, 352 Strand, London, is desirous 

 of obtaining Australian and New Zealand Diptera, in exchange 

 for named British Lepidoptera and Coleoptera or European 

 Diptera. Specimens should be pinned on long pins, with month 

 of capture and locality given. 



