86 Entrance to the Gipps Land Lakes. 



"bluff rises of a somewhat similar character to that at Point 

 Lonsdale, at the entrance to Port Phillip Gulf, but in this 

 case having a reef of rocks extending seawards for a short 

 distance, which affords to some extent shelter to the present 

 entrance, and will be useful as a foundation for any works 

 projected hereafter. 



11. From the lake entrance, north-easterly to Cape Howe, 

 I know nothing of the coast, other than can be gleaned from 

 maps and general report, but I believe that it gradually 

 assumes a bolder and more decided character after passing 

 the Snowy River, but without breaks of importance, or 

 harbours on the line of coast. The Snowy River is quite 

 out of the question as a refuge in stress of weather. 



12. The whole of the coast from Corner Inlet to the en- 

 trance of the lakes (a distance of nearly 100 miles) presents 

 unmistakable evidence of recent formation, but whether 

 such has been caused by upheaval or by drift and deposit, 

 or all three causes combined, I am unable to say, but incline 

 to the belief that it is due chiefly to the two latter causes, 

 because of the peculiar formation of the apparently magnifi- 

 cent, but in reality shallow, sheets of water which back the 

 coast, and of the river formations. 



13. The physical features of the two chief rivers which- 

 empty into the lakes, namely, the Latrobe and the Mitchell 

 (but more especially the former), with their remarkable 

 deltas and great extent of low swamp land and morasses, 

 (which form the river valley bottoms) impress the mind of 

 the observer with the conviction, that at no distant date the 

 sites of the morasses were open firths or estuaries, up which 

 the waters of the Southern Ocean rolled, without let or 

 hindrance from the now existent tea-tree flats and sand 

 dunes, which form the shore and land of the Ninety-Mile 

 Beach. 



14. The causes which have filled up so large an extent of 

 valley as that of the Latrobe (namely, deposition of mud 

 and the accumulation of vegetable matter), are still in opera- 

 tion, extending the river deltas, and silting up the lakes, as 

 evidenced by the deposits of fine mud and dense vegetation 

 in the shallow water around their edges, and the shoals in 

 the centre, and in addition, to the above causes there is the 

 sand drift blown over in gales of wind. 



15. The tendency to form deposit in the lakes is, I have 

 not the slightest doubt, very much increased by the per- 

 colation of their waters through the narrow isthmus of sand 



