210 Pvoceedin<j>; of the Royal Socidij of Victoria. 



tliank the members for so kindly electing Iinu as tlieir President, 

 and thought the most orderly way would be for them to give him 

 leave of absence till his term of office expired. 



Mr. RusDEN moved that leave of alisence be granted. 



Mr. White said he had great pleasure in seconding the motion. 

 He thought it was usual for the Council to deal with such 

 matters, but that was no reason why it should not be dealt with 

 there. 



The motion was carried. 



The adjourned discussion on Professor Kernot's paper, entitled 

 "Notes on the Recent Flood on the Yarra," then took place. 



The President said he had re-written the latter portion of his 

 paper, but had made very few alterations. He had re-wi'itten 

 it mainly with the object of including in it the revised levels 

 furnished by the Public Works Department. Last montli tlic 

 Inspector General had given him a list of the levels taken by his 

 officers, but these had not been thoroughly checked. He had now- 

 received the I'evised levels, but the difference was only trilling, 

 and, as a rule, did not exceed two or three inches at any given 

 spot. With that exception the paper remained practically as it 

 was when read on the last occasion. 



Mr. White said he was surprised to learn of the absence of 

 records at the Public Offices. As to the flood of 1863, there was 

 a great difficulty in finding records. As to the flood of 1849, 

 years ago there was a plan in the Public Works Office, containing 

 a view of the .scaffold of what was then called the new Princes 

 Bridge, on which the highest level was recorded. Had the 

 President seen that 1 



The President. — T have not heard of it before. 



Mr. White said that he had referred at the last meeting to the 

 flood of 1839. It appeared that there were scarcely any records 

 of the flood ; but in The Argns of Saturday, September 5th, thei'c 

 was an extract from Mr. Robert Russell's diary. Mr. Robert 

 Rus.sell was Surveyor in Melbourne then, and laid out the town, 

 and was superseded by Mr. Hoddle, who sold the allotments. In 

 his diary he referred to the flood of December 1839. Mr. Ske2ic, 

 the late Surveyor Genei-al, had at that time arrived in Melbourne, 

 and he .said the flood of 1839 was veiy much more pronounced 

 than the recent one. Melbourne had at that time been laid out 

 about two years, and the Government thought the flat land south 

 of the Yarra would be a splendid site for a town, but the flood 

 came down on the very day that the .sale was to have taken 

 place, and there was water to the depth of ten or twelve feet on 

 it. The Govennnent had, therefore, come to the conclusion that 

 it would not do to sell the land ; but since the new course of the 



