TRANSPORT OF MUD. 



147 



elusive, this being 14,000,000,000 cubic feet. I was unable to ascer- 

 tain the dailj' flow, but taking the mean figures 10th to 21st July, as 

 given in table above, the amount of mud carried by the water would 

 be about 53.32 parts per 100,000. This gives a total of about 

 207,000 tons dry mud transported by the water during the period 

 mentioned. 



Much of this load of mud was deposited in the bay, near the 

 mouth of the Yarra, forming a huge bank extending towards St. 

 Kilda. While the river bed was pretty completely scoured clear 

 of mud, leaving the hard bottom, it was estimated that the entrance 

 was silted up at least two feet, and several steamers ran aground 

 while endeavouring to enter the river. 



The late Professor Kernot contributed a paper descriptive of 

 this flood, and detailing the methods to be carried out to prevent a 

 recurrence, to the Royal Society of Victoria.^ 



I have to ackowledge the assistance of Messrs. H. L. Whitaker 

 and W. E. Appleby in the determination of the amounts of mud in 

 the water. 



With regard to the composition of the mud brought down by 

 flood waters, an analysis of a sample deposited on the banks of the 

 Tweed River, New South Wales, by a flood in November, 1882, 

 which I examined at the time, will be of interest. The mud formed 

 a coating varying up to one inch in thickness on the river banks, and 

 on drying cracked into flat biscuit-like pieces. The analysis was 

 made b}^ boiling with hydrochloric acid, the solution being dealt with 

 in the usual manner.. 



1 Proc. R. S. Vict., IV., Part 2 (N.S.), pp. 209, 210, 1892. 

 W. W. Culcheth. {Proc. Vict Inst. Etig., 1891), 



2Containine Nitrogen. .63 Water in air-dried sample, 5.48 



Observations were also made by 



