122 



LORD HOWE ISLAND, 



caused by tlie wind's actions on the beach sand. Tliey extend from 

 high-water mark a short distance inland, and axe covered with coarse 

 grass and creepers, whilst a fringe of Thatch Palm {Kentia Forsteriana) marks 

 their inland boundary. Ned's Beach is a very good example of this feature. 

 At Blenldnthorpe Beach the sand hummosks are replaced by incipient dunes, 

 which protect the low-lying Moseley's Mat from the inroads of the sea' 

 which would certainly more or less take place were it not for their presence. 

 Speaking broadly, these little dunes are some fifteen or twenty feet above 

 sea-level, inclined with a rather steep slope seaward, and more or less abrupt 

 on the land side overlooking the flat. There are no dunes in the precise 

 and true sense of the word. 



Sand and SJdngle Beaches. — The sandy beaches have already been referred 

 to in the physical description of Lord Howe. Shingle beaches do not 

 exist ; but at the western foot of Mount Ledgbird, and again on the western 

 side of North Bay, a large quantity of coral and basaltic boulders is 

 collected, forming the beach, and piled up along high-water mark in a low 

 terrace. 



Land-slips.— Kt the north end of Ned's Beach masses of basaltic detritus 

 have fallen, or more properly slipped, from the higher eastern flanks of the 

 North Peak. They consist of earth, with stones and blocks of rock, and form 

 low cliffs of limited extent along the waters edge, with a scarf-lilje front 

 from twenty-five to thirty feet high. This deposit is now in course of 

 destruction by small rivulets coursing through it. 



III. — The Greological History of the Island. 



Mr. C. S. Wilkinson- has remarked* that " great volcanic activity prevailed 

 throughout the Pleiocene period," in what is now known as New South 

 Wales. This remark may be equally well applied to the whole of Central- 

 eastern and South-eastern Australia generally. Sir James Hector similarly 

 says of the Pleiocene in New Zealand f:— " This formation belongs to a period 

 when New Zealand was the mountain range of a greatly extended land area, 

 and when, in the North Island, the volcanic forces had their greatest activity." 

 I believe the more recent geological history of Lord Howe Island may be 

 said to date from this period also. Lying as it does between this continent 

 and the islands of New Zealand, it is" but reasonable to suppose that the 

 volcanic activity of one or other of these areas extended in that direction. 

 By an inspection of sounding charts of this part of the South Pacific it will 

 be apparent that a submerged bank, at the depth of about 1,000 feet, extends 

 from New Zealand north-westerly to Lord Howe, but the latter is separated 

 from Australia by deep water. This point has been already briefly pointed 

 out by Alfred Eussell WallaceJ, and it is extremely probable that Lord Howe 

 may have been nearly the furthest extension of this old continent in the 

 direction indicated, for, quoting || Sir James Hector again, " there is no clear 

 evidence of its (i.e., Now Zealand) having been connected during Tertiary 

 times with Australia, lying to the westward." 



If we now follow up the evidence afforded by soundinn-s, we find a con- 

 firmation of these statements in the work performed by the " Challenger" 



2n(l edit., 1887, p. S.'') (4to, Sydney, 



* Notes on the Geology of New South W'ales, 

 1887. Government Printer). 



+ Handbook of New Zealand, 4th edit. , 1886, p. 30. 



t Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, Australasia, 1879, p. .576. 



§ Ind. Col. Exhib., London, 1886, New Zealand Court. Detailed Cat. and Guide to the 

 Geol. Exhibits, 1886, p. 40. 



