COLONIAL GEOLOGY. 



221 



(the mouth of which is some fifteen miles north of the line forming the 

 upper margin of the map), once ran on uninterruptedly to Bass Straits, 

 the intervening portion of country being then dry ground. Such tradi- 

 tion of a depression having taken place during the human period scarcely 

 accords with the observed facts of the land being still in process of eleva- 

 tion, and of the lower spots near Melbourne having been, until very lately, 

 the bottom of estuaries. Peradventure, the story may be referred to 

 another source. The entrance to the bay is exceedingly narrow, not 

 much over two miles in width. The rocks on both sides are identical, and 

 were probably at one time continuous. If this continuity existed for any 

 lengthened period after the adjacent shores had arisen above high-water 

 mark, it is evident the waters of the ocean would be shut out completely, 

 and what is now the Bay of Port Phillip must have existed as a huge salt 

 lake. JN"o large rivers debouching into this, and numerous shoals exist- 

 ing in every portion, it is easy to conceive that the waters would grow 

 gradually shallow, and that many spots would become dry land; the 

 whole forming a large swamp, through the centre of which a chain of 

 lakes might have stretched themselves to what is now the channel running 

 between Points Nepean and Lonsdale, satisfying nearly every requirement 

 of the aboriginal legend. The barrier separating the two waters might, 

 in time, be broken through by waves and tempests. This done, the rush 

 of tide during its flux and efflux would speedily form a channel ; and the 

 area, after having existed as a hunting-ground for the savage aboriginal 

 inhabitants, would be transformed into a commodious harbour, sheltering 

 the ships of a great and civilized nation. 



The cliffs, and most part of the surface-rock of the Schnapper Point dis- 

 trict, are of a somewhat modern Tertiary grit, identical with that found 

 near Brighton ; very ferruginous, occupied in many places by patches of 

 lignite, but for the most part not highly fossiliferous, although in certain 

 localities numerous conglomerated shell-beds are by no means of rare 

 occurrence. To the wearing away of these upper Tertiary rocks into a 

 precipitous coast-line, the watering-place owes its reputation for picturesque 

 scenery ; although, from their wide extent, and from tbe fact that the lower 

 beds are covered up, the country immediately inland is rendered singu- 

 larly uninteresting to a geologist. 



At two spots, however, respectively two miles north and south of 

 Schnapper Point Pier (one of them being closely adjacent to the Carbonife- 

 rous beds previously alluded to), is a considerable outcrop of a much older 

 stratum, generally pronounced to be Eocene, and contemporaneous with that 

 upon which is erected the European capitals of London, Paris, and Vienna. 



The southern of these outcrops is very prettily situated. For nearly two 

 miles the upper and red cliff runs parallel with the coast, at a distance of 

 some 200 or 300 yards inland ; on the coast itself a second cliff is noticed, 

 worn into the most fantastic forms, and between the two is an intervening 

 valley, resembling in some slight degree, at certain points, the famous 

 Undercliff of the Isle of Wight. The real or fancied similitude to the above 

 well-known spot has, perhaps, induced many persons to refer the valley at 

 Schnapper Point to the same origin as that giving rise to the features inci- 

 dental to the southern coast of the " beautiful island." A very slight ex- 

 amination will show that this local theory is an erroneous one. The upper 

 or ferruginous strata are comparatively friable and easily denuded, whilst 

 the lower and Eocene beds are either compact argillaceous limestone, or 

 clay of great tenacity. The coast rising — as the whole coast has certainly 

 done — the upper beds would be eaten away more readily than the lower ; 



