] 62 E. C. ANDREWS. 



The alluvium and sand ridges are indicated by stippling 

 on the map. The boundaries of the alluvium have been 

 taken from a map of the Sydney alluvial areas by Mr. M. 

 Morrison of the Geological Survey. AB represents an 

 inshore bar between two old sandstone headlands, while 

 behind this is a low lying area of black soil drained by 

 Muddy Creek and utilised for market-garden purposes. 

 Sixty years ago this area now occupied for market gardens 

 was a swamp flanked by the sandridge AB, On the sand- 

 ridge pioneers built their homes, while they drained the 

 swamp area and protected their gardens from inundation 

 by building low dykes both parallel, and at right angles, to 

 the course of Muddy Creek. CD is a long flat ridge of sand 

 whose trend rudely sympathises with that of the present 

 beach and the ridge AB, Inshore of CD is a low lying 

 area of swampy land formerly known as Pat Moore's Swamp 

 and a former home for numerous wild fowl, but now drained 

 in great measure. The broad sand ridge CD is quite a 

 feature in the low-lying landscape and it rises steeply for 

 15 or 17 feet from the swampy area to the west. The 

 topography thence to the present Lady Robinson's Beach 

 is in contrast with the alternation of swamps and sand 

 ridges just described to the west. Between CD and the 

 present beach numerous parallel ridges of sand occur, with- 

 out any intervening swamps and lacking the persistent 

 north and south direction of the ridge CD, All the ridges 

 have accordant summits and the long shallow intervening 

 troughs are all on an approximate level. A bird's-eye view 

 of the ridges and hollows from a point several hundred feet 

 above them would give the appearance of a plain covered 

 with dense timber and scrub growths. Eucalyptus pilularis, 

 E, botryoides, E, robusta, Banksia integrifolia, and 

 Angophora lanceolata are the common larger plant growths 

 of the sandy waste, while E, robusta and Casuarina glauca 

 are the common large growths of the swampy areas. 



