634 SAND-MOVEMENT ON THE NEW SOUTH WALES COAST, 



only in times of flood that a passage is forced through the sand 

 by the pressure of water at the back. 



Richmond River. — Travelling south from Cape Byron we find 

 the coast trending to the south-west, and as there is a large 

 deflection of the littoral current at the Cape, the water near the 

 beach, at all events as far south as Evans' Head, appears to travel 

 to the north. More information on this point is required in the 

 way of current-observations, and until this is available it is 

 difficult to see the trend of the movements at the Richmond 

 River entrance. 



The outlet is hard up to North Head, and the course of the 

 river for nearly 20 miles from the entrance is approximately 

 parallel to the beach. This indicates that the travel of the sand 

 is from the south, but exactly what it is due to is at present not 

 quite clear. 



For 120 miles south of the Richmond River entrance, the 

 coast is approximately a straight line, and it is on this length that 

 the characteristic curve, due to the sand-travel with the littoral 

 southerly curreut, becomes very evident. A cursory study of the 

 chart will show the outline of the beach from Evans' Reef to the 

 Wooded Bluff, in lat.29° 22 ', reproduced on nearly every beach 

 for more than 100 miles. There is no headland projecting 

 sufficiently far into the sea to cause a deflection of the main 

 southerly current or an eddy current, until Trial Bay is reached, 

 so that we have a shore-line somewhat of the form of the Greek 

 letter £ repeated with astonishing regularity. 



Clarence Rivek. — It is more than probable that the original 

 outlet of the Clarence River was about five miles further north 

 than at present, but the southerly drift of the sand so choked the 

 entrance and heaped up the flood waters that the stream, 

 following the line of least resistance, at length found the present 

 outlet; and the old one, north of the Wooded Bluff, is now 

 completely hidden by drift sand and dense scrub 



That such change in the position of the outlet was the result of 

 many ages of desperate struggle between the great forces of nature, 



