617 
In Ross Island, Townsville, near the mouth of the Ross River, a thick hed of clay 
forms part of an estuarine deposit above high water mark. This is a “Raised Beach,” in 
the ordinary sense of the term. It is crowded with fossil shells, and the late Professor 
Denton having insisted that it was of Tertiary age, I made a collection, which my Col- 
league examined and found to consist entirely of species still living in the adjoining seas. 
The late Prof. Jukes, speaking of the coast flats near Cape Upstart,* referred to 
pebbles of pumice found among the grass and under the roots of the trees “ wherever 
we landed, from Sandy Cape to this place,” and added, “ I have never observed them 
at a greater height above the sea than fifteen feet.” I can confirm Prof. Jukes’ remarks 
and extend them to almost every part of the Eastern Coast 1 have visited. 
Speaking of the coral conglomerate of Cape Upstart and the Capricorn Islands, • 
Prof. Jukes remarked t = — 
“ Plats composed of it, half-a-mile in wfidth, are frequent along the shore of the 
north-cast coast of Australia. Upon all these flat spaces formed of the conglomerate, as 
well as upon all other flat land along the eastern and north-eastern coast of Australia, 
which is not more than ten feet above high water mark, there is found an abundance of 
pumice pebbles. They are never, or very rarely, seen on the present beach or recently 
washed up, nor are they found now floating at sea. . . . They are also found 
embedded in the coral rock of Raine’s Islet. Whatever age, therefore, may be given to 
the coral conglomerates must be extended to the pebbles.” 
In the neighbourhood of Nudgee, near the mouth of the Brisbane River, a sandy 
Baised Bcacb, perhaps twenty feet above sea level, contains an abundance of fossil 
shells all of living Pacific species — at least no other have been detected in a collection 
made by me and critically examined by my Colleague. 
Speaking of Peel Island, Moreton Bay, Mr. Stutchbury wrote J in 1854 : — 
“In proof of its modern but gradual uprising, I offer the following facts; — 
“ The whole length of the beach on the eastern side, above the present water line, 
is studded with dead coral in situ naturale, much of it never having been removed 
from the place in which it lived, principally consisting of the genera Meandrina, 
Astrea, and other shallow water corals. It is known that these genera, although 
capable of living in very shallow water, cannot exist the length of an ebb tide unless 
there is a spray sea wetting them, and, as it does occur that at occasional times, during 
changes of wind or calm, they would be left perfectly dry for six or seven hours, then, from 
the delicate nature of their structure they would be destroyed, and such is the case here 
exhibited. In addition, I find that in the shallow waters — ^now mere sandbanks (which 
may be waded at a depth of three or four feet) of areas of hundreds of acres — there may be 
seen Pocillopora, CaryophyllecB, and other genera which only exist in tolerably deep 
water, i.e., from five to ten fathoms. No living species of the latter genera are now to be 
found in the bay. I endeavoured to obtain them by the dredge, but without success, but 
on the shallow banks, always covered even at low-water, fine examples of tbe first-named 
genera may still be found alive. Further, several feet above the present high-water line, 
clumps of dead rock-oysters may still be seen adhering to the rocks on which they grew. 
“ The above facts, taken together with those seen in the islands of the River 
Hunter, described in the Report of my trip to Newcastle and Maitland in December, 
1850, 1 think are sufficient to prove that the whole of this vast island [Australia] is still 
gradually emerging from the ocean.” 
‘Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. “Fly,” i., p. 53. London, 1847. 
fhoc. eit. p. 335. 
X Twelfth Tri-monthly Report upon the Geological and Mineralogioal Survey of New South Wales. 
Legislative Assembly Paper, Jlf.S. Wales, p. 7. 
