46 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 



The lacustrine sediments in some of the oldest depressions on 

 the lava-plain have been accumulating since the lava-plain was 

 formed. The flood-plain deposits commenced to form after these 

 older depressions were connected up by the dissection of the lava- 

 plains, and continuous drainage channels formed; it is possible 

 that some of the sub-surface flood-plain deposits rest on the 

 earlier lacustrine deposits. As both lacustrine and flood-plain 

 deposits are still accumulating in places, the surface deposits of 

 each are Recent and contemporaneous; below the surface parts 

 of each are also contemporaneous but their respective positions in 

 terms of footage are in no-wise comparable. Lacustrine sediments 

 on this area are mainly composed of wind-blown material and 

 accumulate at a much slower rate than the fluviatile sediments : a 

 few feet of the first may be represented by many feet of the 

 second — there is no way of equating the deposits except at the 

 surface. 



The valleys of the mature topography show some evidence of 

 terracing, but these have not been correlated with any Pleistocene 

 eustatic levels. From the mouth of the Hopkins River to Cape 

 Otway, the coast is a young, receding one, with cliffs up to 100 

 feet high of horizontal Tertiary beds capped with dune-limestone. 

 On the face of these cliffs are remnants of the 15 to 20 feet Post- 

 glacial raised beach, but the Pleistocene shorelines have either 

 been removed by erosion or are submerged under the waters 

 of the Southern Ocean. 



Included here with the scoria-cone phase are the confined 

 lava-flows that extend as tongues down valleys falling both north 

 and south from the Dividing Range in its present or former 

 positions. Most of these flows belong to the scoria-cone phase, 

 but, where the lava has poured on to the lava-plains from the 

 scoria-cones, it is difficult to distinguish it from the older flows. 



The facts concerning the discovery of the Pejark Marsh Mill- 

 stone were stated by Spencer and Walcott in their unpublished 

 manuscript on early man in Victoria (1914 circa). As they made 

 personal contact with the finder who gave them all the particulars, 

 they were best fitted to describe the circumstances of the find and 

 to form an opinion as to its authenticity. Their remarks are 

 quoted in extenso : 



In the beginning of February 1908 we received from Mr. A. J. Merry of 

 Terang, a letter in which he states "I am forwaring some bones and what I 

 think is a stone implement I unearthed in an excavation for a concrete culvert, 

 over a drain, half a mile from the township (Terang) and 2 J miles this side of 



Mount Noorat The excavation was about 10 feet deep from the natural 



surface, and consists of 3 feet soil, 2 feet solid sandstone, 3 feet black clay, 2 

 feet yellow clay, as far as I had to go down. Through the whole length of the 



