A FEW SCIENTIFIC NOTES TAKEN DdilNG THE 

 lliESENT DKOUGHT. 



By THOMAS P. LUCAS, M.R.C.S., Eng.; L.S.A., 

 liond. ; li.R.C.P., Ed. 



(Head before the Ivnjul Societi/ of QneensJund, 21st June, 1902). 



Communities may learn wisdom even from adversity. The 

 study of nature is a search for knowledge. Knowledge of the 

 cosmos must be of special service in framing the constitutions 

 and helming the interests of a nation. The disasters of flood 

 and drought, in the natural necessities of our existence, call for 

 brain work and scientific research, and in practical experiences 

 herald us to discoveries of the laws and activities of nature. 

 To know the laws of nature is to be able to use nature as the 

 servitor of power for men's physical and social needs. 



In the present continued drought, water-holes and other 

 supplies of water are being dried up. To weep and wail is folly. 

 To set ourselves to compass the situation and mitigate the 

 uncomfortable conditions resultant therefrom is justifiable and 

 healthy, intellectually and morally. I have a twenty-acre piece 

 of orchard, about eight miles south from Brisbane, gradually 

 sloping to a chain of water-holes, and by these separated from 

 another twenty acres of tiraberland, gradually sloped upwards 

 on the opposite side. In flood time the intervening valley 

 channel was that of a narrow stream of rashing water ; in 

 ordinary seasons and weather, simply a chain of water-holes 

 twenty to fifty yards apart. I have held possession of the land 

 for ten years, and until this year never knew the water to fail. 

 But about four months ago all the water-holes were dry, 

 excepting one. This evidently communicated with a spring of 

 slightly brackish water, as it was always full, and in spite of 



