Entrance to the Gipps Land Lakes. 85 



would be, and I have had information of such changes as 

 have taken place at the entrance, since the date of my visit. 



4. The opinions formed by me on the spot eighteen 

 months ago, have remained unchanged and unmodified, 

 although I have taken all reasonable means to learn what 

 could be advanced for or against the entrance in the 

 interim. 



5. Since the date of my visit, the entrance appears to 

 have worn its way considerably more to the north-east, and 

 more directly under the sandstone bluff which at that place 

 projects seawards, through the otherwise monotonous stretch 

 of sand dunes forming the Ninety- Mile Beach. The waters 

 of Lake Bunga would also appear to be drained off, for I am 

 told that, instead of a running stream, as at the time of my 

 visit, the channel is now nearly dry, but this latter point is 

 of very little importance. 



6. Having premised this much, I will, with your permis- 

 sion, submit the opinions which I have arrived at, leaving 

 you to estimate their value, seeing that they are almost 

 wholly the result of inferential reasoning on certain physical 

 features and phenomena, rather than deductions from a 

 series of ascertained facts. 



7. For the sake of clearness, I will preface my opinions 

 with a brief sketch of the locality, with such general obser- 

 vations as I have been able to make during the limited 

 opportunities which I have had for such. 



8. The south-east coast of Gipps Land, from Corner Inlet 

 to Cape Howe, extends in an almost unbroken line, over 

 about three degrees of longitude and one degree of latitude, 

 bearing in a general direction from Corner Inlet north-east^ 

 and gradually edging round to the east until off the Ram 

 Head, when it suddenly trends away in a north-easterly 

 direction to Cape Howe, the south-eastern extremity of the 

 colony and of the Australian Continent. 



9. The coast from Corner Inlet to the entrance to the 

 Lakes (a distance of nearly 100 miles) is composed of low 

 sand dunes, backed with a considerable expanse of low, flat 

 country, and shallow lakes and lagoons, and only broken in 

 its outline by the entrance to Port Albert, Shallow Inlet, 

 Merriman's Creek, and the Lakes. Shallow Inlet and Merri- 

 man's Creek entrances are occasionally blocked up with drift 

 sand, and such I have been informed was the case with the 

 entrance to the Lakes at no very remote period. 



10. North-east of the existing lake entrance a sandstone 



