36 Notes on the Discovery of some Keys in the 



very careful to see that the sloping down of the land above 

 showed no marks of a land slip, or wombat holes, or springs, 

 or any interstices through which the keys might have 

 reached the position in which they were found. In fact, I 

 came away thoroughly convinced that nonesuch had existed, 

 but that at the time the keys were deposited the matrix 

 was an open beach, forming the then shore line. 



" Now, presuming that the facts above related be incon- 

 testable, two things are to be accounted for — 



" 1st. The existence of a shore line so many feet above 

 that now existing. 



" 2nd. The overlapping and overlaying of that shore line 

 by the undulating down, descending to the shore from the 

 interior. 



" With regard to the first hypothesis, many may be tempted 

 to account for it by referring it to upheaval of the coast, an 

 occurrence of which in past periods at least the whole 

 southern Australian coast line affords so many undoubted 

 proofs, and it may be said there is no reason why such 

 should not have occurred here in very recent times; but the 

 second difficulty, however, presented by the overlapping of 

 the adjacent country, cannot be thus accounted for. 



" Port Phillip was first discovered by Lieut. Murray, in 

 1802, and actually entered by Flinders the same year ; and 

 as the latter mentions visiting Indented Head, and even 

 Station Peak, he may have visited Corio Bay. 



" The first settlement was made by Col. Collins, in 1803, 

 on the Nepean side. 



" Possibly Lieut. Grimes, who was sent from his camp to 

 report upon the extent and character of the bay, may have 

 made the circuit, as it may be supposed the runaway Buckley 

 must have done before he permanently took up his residence 

 with the tribe of blacks frequenting the vicinity of Corio 

 Bay. 



"No actual survey was made before the visit of the 

 ' Rattlesnake,' under Captain Hobson, in 1836, Batman 

 having in the previous year formed his first station on 

 Indented Head. It is not impossible that runaway convicts 

 or shipwrecked mariners' may have visited these shores prior 

 to the recorded discovery, and visits as above-mentioned. 



" I remarked above that the first idea which might present 

 itself to the mind on viewing the signs of a former higher 

 level in the beach line in this and other localities in Port 

 Phillip, would be that there had been a sudden or gradual 



