5 
appear as irregular as the waves of the ocean in a storm 
when beheld from a great height. 
The loftiest mountain height is, however, no more than 
a measure of the extent of the denudation to which the 
plateau has been subjected within the tertiary period. 
The spurs from the great ranges east of the southern 
extension of the Cordillera disappear as we approach the 
coast. There are no hills of any considerable height 
within ten to fifteen miles of it. 
Bordering the Ninety-mile Beach there are large lakes 
in an extensive area of flat country. It is probable that 
at one time, and when the laud had not the same configu¬ 
ration as now, each lake had its separate outlet to the sea. 
At the present time Lake Wellington, Lake Victoria, and 
Lake King, which may be regarded rather as the expan¬ 
sion of rivers than true lakes, discharge their surplus 
waters at a point fifty miles east of Lake Wellington. 
Between the lakes and the sea there is a tract of sandy 
country, varying in breadth from a few hundred yards to 
one mile, the sea-margin of which shifts with the winds. 
At the entrance to the sea this tract narrows to a single 
line of sand-dunes, not more than two hundred yards 
wide, and across the entrance there is a shifting bar.* 
Along this coast, in great floods, sufficient to overcome the 
stress of the storm-beaten sea, new mouths are opened, if 
not in the lakes, certainly in the rivers. The Snowy 
River has shifted its mouth many times. In periods of 
* As might be expected, the lakes are shallower than the larger rivers which 
run into them. 
When the bar at the entrance is closed—and it is sometimes closed during 
heavy easterly gales—the water rises to a great height in the lakes, and the 
country for a distance of one hundred miles back is flooded. It was the custom of 
the settlers to cut through the bank when the flood had attained its maximum 
height, and the rush of waters very quickly cleared a channel, through which 
even large vessels could sail in .—Report of the late Mr . Dawson, 1st Febr uary 1855, 
