Displayed in the Fisherman's Bend Cutting. 169 



I have already said that the bed has been met with in the 

 river dredgings, but I have no record of the reaches of the 

 river in which the shells were found. Captain Synnot 

 informs me that when diofgino^ out his dock near what is 

 now Langland's Foundry (close to Wright and Orr's present 

 dock, and a mile and a half from the nearer entrance to the 

 canal), he came upon shells, and Mr. John Macaulay, who 

 acted as foreman during the construction of the dock, assures 

 Mr. Davies that the shells were those of the " Blood Cockle," 

 which is the old colonists' name for the area. I can obtain 

 no evidence of shells havino: been found in Wrio-ht and 

 Orr's new dock. In the river bed the silt ceases, as we go 

 up stream, at about the crossing of the Steam Ferry, at 

 Spencer-street ; at and above this was a patch of rock which 

 has been removed by the Trust. The rock crops to the 

 surface a^ain at the Falls Bridoje, and occurs as 

 more or less of an -obstruction to a point about 300 

 yards above Prince's Bridge. Where the rock is 

 covered above the ferry the covering consists, as far as I 

 can learn or judge, of the yellow clay ; but silt may exist 

 as flood deposit, not, I expect, as a strictly estuarine deposit, 

 in the South Melbourne swamps. I had purposed paying a 

 visit of inspection to the cutting for the Yarra embankment, 

 above Falls Fridge, but the water got in, I believe prema- 

 turely, and I was prevented from carrying out my intention. 

 I have not, therefore; been able to ascertain whether the 

 areas occurred here or not. I think not, but, from actual 

 observation, the area bed has been found stretching to a 

 distance of three, and perhaps five, miles inland from the 

 present shore. 



I have made inquiries into the present habitats and 

 distribution of the two molluscs characteristic of this bed. 

 Though I have taken considerable pains during my four 

 years' residence in Melbourne to acquaint myself with the 

 locale and habits of the mollusca of the bay, I have never 

 seen living animals of Area trapezium. I have found live 

 shells thrown on the shore between Brighton and Chel- 

 tenham, and dead shells are frequent on the sands between 

 St. Kilda and Sandridge. I have dredged in Laverton Bay 

 and at Sandridge, but never obtained living specimens; 

 still I believe the animals are living somewhere off Wil- 

 liamstown. Mr. Tope informed Mr. Davies that he had 

 taken the animals alive many years ago near Williamstown ; 

 and Mr. W. Kershaw, ot the National Museum, obtained 



