648 PROCEEDINGS OF, SECTION H. ~ 
was, according to Mr. Price, caused ‘by 4 inches of rain, 
the country being previously well soaked. But between 
such extremes there are many means, among which it 
would take a wise man to know which flood should be 
stopped, and which allowéd to go down the river. 
“Then it is known that floods frequently come in pairs. 
If the first to arrive is held-back, it would have to be let 
out very quickly, so as not to have the second on top of it. 
If it were held up too long the second flood would find the 
reservoir with the first flood still in it, and when the second 
had passed over the dam the reservoir would have to be 
emptied, which would protong the flooded condition of the 
river to an injurious length of time, seeing that while the 
river was thus kept bank high all adjacent lands would be 
waterlogged for want of drainage outlet. A case occurred 
in 1870, when six floods followed each other between the 
5th March and the 25th of May. If each of these had been 
held up in the dam, and let out again, the lower river 
would have been bank high for nearly three months, and 
all land would have been waterlogged for that time. 
‘But the first flood reached its height at Singleton from 
the llth to the 12th, and the second between the 18th 
and 19th, so that there was no time between these to let 
the first flood out of the dam before the second was on top 
of it. On the 16th the first flood had gone down greatly, 
and it is not unlikely, seeing the weather cleared up, the 
keeper of the dam would have opened the sluices; but 
immediately he did so, the second flood was coming, and he 
would have to shut the sluices forthwith, for if he did not 
he would blend the two floods into one. In hke manner 
between the fourth and fifth floods of the series there was 
hardly time to empty the dam of the fourth before the 
fifth was at hand; and the fourth was the highest of them 
all. : 
“ Now, under these circumstances, this reservoir would not 
have served its purpose; neither would it on the more 
frequent occasions when the floods follow each other at short 
intervals. In any case seeing how uncertain what rainfall 
will produce one, how careful the man must be who handles 
such a vast body of water, and how entirely new and ex- 
perimental is such a method of reguiating floods, I think 
it would be more prudent to let some other country try the 
experiment first, and see how it works.”’ 
I have shown above so many reasons against the 
possibility of controlling floods in rivers, that if the reasons 
are valid, the problem must be considered hopeless. But 
