Western Victoria, 75 



are considerably coarser than the sand now on the beach at 

 the spots where I took samples for comparison, but Mr. 

 Dennant tells me that he has found beach sand in the 

 locality of a very similar character. 



Where the dunes have been breached I saw some very 

 faint traces of bedding, the layers being about two inches 

 thick. I saw no horizontal divisions, and no linear arrani>'e- 

 ment of either dip or colour, such as characterises the 

 false-bedded limestone. On the contrary, all the material 

 seemed to be perfectly homogeneous and almost structureless 

 at every level that 1 could examine it. 



VII. — Marine Beds, Bridgewater. 



On the summit of the Cape Nelson cliffs, J 80 feet above 

 sea level, the limestone is partly covered by a sand bed, 

 which originally may have been three or four feet thick, 

 but which is now so far blown away that only wind-swept 

 and smoothed knolls are left. All these knolls are capped 

 by a bed of recent shells, two or three inches thick. 



A similar shell bed occurs further inland, as for instance 

 where the Bridgewater road crosses a little rivulet opposite 

 to Wilson's farm. This spot must be two miles from the 

 beach and about 175 feet above sea level. The vehicular 

 traffic has cut trenches into the soil and these expose 

 shallow sections. These show a stratum of shells a few 

 inches below the surface. The shell bed rests upon a shallow 

 sand bed, and this lies upon the pleistocene limestone. As 

 the road winds round and over the hills, this bed is noticed 

 closely following their contours, indicating that they are 

 parts of the bed of a sea or lake which has disappeared. 



I noticed upon the crests and sides of many of the liills, 

 patches of a much whiter and denser limestone. These may 

 be deposits of travertine, due to the oozing out of drainage 

 waters, which have now, from some cause, ceased to flow ; 

 but I understand Mr. Woods to say, that they are marine 

 deposits, formed when these rocks were the bed of a shallow 

 sea, and that he has found marine fossils in them. These 

 marine deposits have suggested to me that, at the time 

 when the land stood 200 feet lower than it does now, 

 and when these hills were just immersed, that then 

 high lava cliffs probably extended as a sea wall or break- 

 water for some miles to the south of the present coast line. 



