Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 129 



Mr. White. — Was the tree cut down and measured 

 directly ? 



Mr. HowiTT said that he understood it had been cut down 

 and measured, but he had no means of checking the 

 measurements. The highest tree he had personally 

 measured, was one 350 feet in height, as he had before 

 stated. The increase of floods was supposed to be caused 

 by the diminution of timber, but he was inclined to think 

 that they were to be accounted for by the harden- 

 ing of the country generally, and more especially by the 

 increased drainage which resulted from the making of roads 

 and tracks. The water ran off the country far more rapidly 

 than it had previously done, and even assuming that there 

 was no difference in the rainfall, he would expect the floods 

 to come down with far greater rapidity than was formerly 

 the case. The cutting power of the Snowy River for instance, 

 was very great, and he doubted whether there were 10 acres 

 of soil left in the valley up to the high water mark. In 

 many cases the sides of the valley were completely stripped 

 to the rock, and so far as he knew, there was not a tree 

 standing within the flood marks in that valley. This was 

 due to the suddenness and rapidity with which the floods 

 came down from the table land, such as the Gundai flood 

 which occurred in 18i9 or 1850. Similarly, he had noticed 

 in the Omeo District that several gullies had been cut out. 

 This all helped to increase the drainage. 



Thursday, August lUh. 

 The President (Professor Kernot) in the chair. 

 The minutes of the last meeting were read and contirmed. 



Sidney Plowman, F.R.C.S., J. Talbot Brett, M.R.C.S., G. A. 

 Syme, M.B., F.R.C.S., were nominated as Members ; and 

 Lenthal Oldfield, Edward E. Rosenblum, M.B., and H. Best, 

 were nominated as Associates. 



Messrs. P. D. Phillips and George Gordon McCrae were 

 elected as Associates. 



The President, in the absence of Dr. Neild, the Hon. 

 Librarian, who was unable to be present, read the Librarian's 

 Report, which showed that 130 new volumes had been added 

 to the Library during the past month. 



