112 The Past and Present of the Port of Melbourne, 



month of each as they lost their current in the still waters, 

 whilst the prevailing winds from the south and south- 

 west brought up the littoral drifts along the shore, 

 continuously edging the waters of the River Yarra along the 

 side of the rising land on the north, and forcing it to form 

 the curved bend to *the north, known as Humbug Reach, 

 until joining with the Saltwater, they kept the edge of the 

 high and rocky foreshores of Footscray and Williamstown ; 

 sweeping past Point Gellibrand, the current became dissipated 

 in the still waters of the gulf southwards. 



Such is a brief theoretic history of the formation of 

 Hobson's Bay and the channel of the River Yarra, as 

 inferred from the teachings of geology in the operations of 

 nature elsewhere, to which causes may probably be added 

 the slow upheaval of our coasts, as evidenced in the old 

 raised estuary beds between Corio Bay and Bass's Straits. 



Assuming the above theory to be granted as highly 

 probable, if not absolutely true, it follows that if Port 

 Phillip be left to itself, it can only be a question of time 

 for the complete filling up, not only of Hobson's Bay, but 

 the gulf itself (the same agencies remaining in operation), 

 being a natural sequence of cause and effect. 



It is a fact established beyond all doubt, that all land 

 degrades, and all waters shoal, following the natural law of 

 change ; but that areas of water receiving running streams 

 shoal more rapidly than waters remote from such action, 

 because running streams carry more or less of solid matter 

 in mechanical suspension of a fineness proportioned to the 

 velocity of the current, which solid matter is precipitated on 

 losing its velocity, and from fresh water more rapidly on 

 entering brackish or saline waters. 



Now in the case of the River Yarra prior to 1853, it 

 debouched nominally at what is called the river entrance, 

 but practically, from the pressure of littoral currents along 

 the coast from the south and east past Sandridge, and along 

 the north side of the bay, it was facilitated in its now along 

 the Williamstown shore, owing to all such littoral currents 

 turning to now with the river stream until past Point 

 Gellibrand, from whence, having no controlling line, it 

 enters into the broader waters and becomes lost ; and this 

 view of the case is justified, because when the river is most 

 surcharged with mud, and discharging the heaviest freshets, 

 the winds usually blowing are strong from the south and 

 south-west against the Brighton and St. Kilda shores, 



