170 E. C. ANDREWS. 



the casual observer this has a striking superficial similarity 

 to a raised beach, nevertheless the writer has observed its 

 actual growth as a terrace of accumulation during the past 

 four years. 



After the great storm of 1912 had excavated a high cliff 

 in the sand dunes the winds began to pile up the sand under 

 this cliff of erosion and beyond the reach of the waves of 

 the period 1912 - 1916. At the same time a great sand- 

 binder, namely, Spinifex hirsutus, commenced to send its 

 long runners underneath the cliff of sand, and so helped to 

 fix the sand. Little by little the sand was piled under the 

 cliff, and little by little the Spinifex bound all together and 

 maintained a surface approximately level. At the present 

 rate of growth it would take a period of twenty to thirty 

 years to obliterate the trace of the 1912 storm unless 

 indeed, in the meantime, an onshore storm still greater 

 than that of 1912, should visit the beach. 



It was stated by certain local residents that the action 

 of the prevailing north-easterly would hide the traces of 

 the storm quickly, say, within a month or two of July 1912. 

 The writer has always agreed with Dr. G. K. Gilbert 1 that 

 the form of the beach has been determined by the great 

 storm of the decade or the generation, or perhaps even of 

 the century, and he has accordingly made test observations 

 during a long period with the result that he considers 

 Gilbert's principle may be accepted as established. 



The accompanying brief notes may help to illustrate this 

 point. Lady Robinson's Beach has been visited by several 

 great gales during the past sixty years. The greatest of 

 these, considered from the point of view of action in this 

 bay, was the Dunbar Storm in 1857. The next in point of 

 severity was the Dandenong Storm in September 1876, the 



1 Gilbert, G. K., "Topographic Features of Lake Shores." IT. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, Fifth Ann. Kept. 1883-1884, pp. 89, 90. 



