RECENT SUBMERGENCE OF COAST AT NARRABEEN. 233 
Company north of the Cemetery, 3 miles beyond Stockton, 
Newcastle. The last mentioned bore proved the old 
estuarine beds of the Hunter to lie there at a depth of over 
200 feet below sea level. Also it may be mentioned that 
in the case of the remarkable washaways in the Borehole 
Seam, which led to some loss of life at the Ferndale Colliery 
some years ago, we have an example of an old channel of 
the Hunter River eroded out of the Borehole seam at a 
spot where that seam is now 100 feet below sea level. 
The existence of a bed of recent peat with erect stumps 
of trees in position of growth at Fingal Bay near Port 
Stephens, the said peat bed being traceable to below the 
level of low tide, is evidently good evidence that this sub- 
mergence is probably still in progress. 
With a view to seeking further evidence on the subject 
of this recent coastal submergence, through the kindness 
of the Under Secretary for Public Works, Mr. J. Davis, 
M.I.C.E.,a Small hand-boring plant was placed at the disposal 
of the authors on ist August, 1904. With the help of about 
twenty of the University students, under the superintend- 
ence of the authors, an attempt was made to put a bore 
down close to the bridge at Narrabeen Lagoon, at the spot 
shown on Plate 38. Considerable difficulty was experienced 
in forcing the lining pipes, by hand, down through the 
quick-sand, and the first bore had to be abandoned without 
any definite evidence being obtained. The second bore 
proved more successful, for at a depth of 52 feet below the 
surface, and about 49 feet below the level of high water, 
clean sea sand with shells, which up to that time had been 
the dominant material in the bore, suddenly gave place to 
a dark carbonaceous sandy clay. The general section of 
the bore is shown on Plate 39. It will be noticed that 
these dark clays at about 57 feet below the surface con- 
tained a number of Gasteropod shells of shallow water habit. 
