COAST BEEN LONG STATIONARY. SS^ 



or during, or since the coming of the pumice 

 pebbles, I cannot say. That the advent of these 

 pebbles is not a very recent event, is proved by facts 

 I observed on the north-east coast. I have picked 

 up pumice pebbles, for instance, on sand and mud- 

 flats more than a mile from the sea. If those 

 pebbles were hove up by breakers, there must have 

 been a mile of additional ground added to the flat 

 since the time when they were so hove. If they 

 were thrown on the land by a sudden wave of great 

 magnitude, this evidence for lapse of time would 

 fail, but that they were not so thrown is, I think, 

 made clear, partly by their equal distribution over 

 the flats, but more especially by their frequently 

 occurring in considerable quantities, embedded in 

 the coral conglomerates of which many of the flats 

 are composed. They are also found embedded in 

 the coral rock of Raine's Islet. Whatever age, 

 therefore, may be given to the coral conglomerates 

 must be extended to the pebbles. Altogether, the 

 evidence derived from the existence of the coral con- 

 glomerates, and the presence of pumice pebbles, to 

 a height of eight or ten feet above the highest 

 possible tides, proves to my mind that for a very 

 long period the whole eastern coast of Australia has 

 either been quite stationary, or has been affected by 

 slight movements of elevation. It is clear, I think, 

 at all events, that no recent depression has taken 

 place throughout the district where either or both 

 of these phenomena occur. 



vol. i. z 



