Note on timber found beneath alluvial drift at Swansea

On the pleasant drive from Bicheno to Swansea the traveller, after crossing over the spurs of [the range called " Lyne's Sugar Loaf" by the so-called "cut," comes suddenly in view of the large level tract of country lying south of the hills he is descending, and stretching from the hamlet of Cranbrook inwards towards the foot of the ranges which bound the St. Paul's Valley on the east. This tract is mainly formed by the coast range, which fringes the shore from St. Patrick's Head to Bicheno, suddenly swerving inland at the latter place, and joining the above-mentioned highlands east of the St. Paul's which lie at some distance from the East Coast. At the latitude of Swansea the ranges approach the coast again, and then follow the shore southwards. The level tract of country hemmed in by these features is alluvial, and forms what may be generally styled the basin of the Swan River, and its smaller companion streams, the "Cygnet" and the "Wye." On the estate of Cambria, which lies mainly at the foot of the hill, locally called the " Lookout," the soil is rich and of great depth ; and on that part of it lying between the main road and the shores of Oyster Bay there is a lagoon of considerable extent, which seems in former times to have had egress to the Meredith River by a watercourse now extinct, but visible in the form of an ordinary sinuous depression in the paddocks. Following the course of this depression a deep dyke has recently been cut by Mr. Meredith to drain the lagoon. In the shallowest part of the old watercourse this ditch attains a maximum depth of about 12 feet, and it was at the bottom of it that the men employed in the work came upon the log, lying transversely to the direction of the drain. It was so hard that they had considerable difficulty in cutting it asunder with an axe, a fact which may easily be realised on inspecting the sample of wood which accompanies this note. It will be observed that the wood is almost black, like the Irish " bog oak," and exactly resembles in texture a solid piece of ebony.