Art. XIII. — On the Sections of the Delta of the Yarra, 

 displayed in the Fisherman's Bend Cutting. 



By a. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc, F.G.S. 



[Read 14tli October, 1886.] 



The raised beaches around the shores of Port Phillip — at 

 Portarlington, Frankston, Cheltenham, Brighton, &;c., 

 everywhere marked where the cliffs are high enough to 

 prevent any confusion of the old with the present shores — 

 have a great interest in their bearing on the question of the 

 changes in physical features which have taken place in the Port 

 Phillip district in post-tertiary times. The task of collecting 

 evidence of any value is, however, tedious, and as the shells of 

 these deposits are in the eyes of zoologists not quite recent, 

 and in those of geologists scarcely fossil, they have not 

 attracted the serious attention of working naturalists. 

 Usually met with in natural cliff-sections, or laid bare on the 

 present shores, all more or less weathered, fractured, and 

 fragile, these shells and their record have not yet been 

 diligently read. Yet a careful study will repay those who 

 would accurately determine the changes which have taken 

 place about our coasts during the recent period. 



A special opportunity has occurred of examining these 

 post-tertiary deposits at a distance from the sea, and in 

 extended and freshly-exposed vertical sections, in the ship 

 canal, or straight cut, recently completed to enable the 

 shipping to avoid the dangers and delays of the Fisherman's 

 Bend. M}^ attention was directed to the matter by Mr. 

 D. Davies, of the Melbourne Harbour Trust; and after paying 

 a visit to the canal I fully agreed with him as to the import- 

 ance of preserving a record of the sections, certainly the 

 most extensive hitherto obtained, or likely to be obtained 

 in the future, of the beds which form the delta of the Yarra. 

 Accordingly I have paid several visits to the ground, noted 

 the stratigraphy carefully, and collected as many relics of 

 life and traces of mineralisation as possible in the somewhat 

 limited time that has intervened between my first visit and 

 the admission of the water. I have to tender my thanks 



