240 WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



a youthful facies. The Yass River is flowing through undu- 

 lating or mature country. The Upper Molongo, winding 

 over a dead-flat plain of silt (held back by the rock bar at the 

 defile) is meandering over senile topography. In every case 

 the cross-section of the valley gives the key to the method 

 of its formation and date of its present form. 



After the lecture Captain Scott's attitude was rather 

 amusing. He said physiography was too novel to accept at 

 once, and he would like to hear if it agreed with the teaching 

 of older geology ? Dr. Bill was very cordial, and said the 

 onus lay on the geologist to disprove the tilting and faulting 

 which I had instanced in the Australian federal territory. 



It is a point of some interest as illustrating the growth 

 of a special physiographic outlook, that I had quite forgotten 

 to mention the geological deposits above Lake George, which 

 corroborated the evolution of the surface as deduced by pure 

 physiographic reasoning ! 



Simpson discussed the question of the rain factor in 

 physiography, so I told them about our gigantic rain gauge 

 in Lake George, near Canberra. This is about twenty miles 

 long and five miles wide. At some periods it is thirty feet 

 deep, and contains murray cod several feet long. Again — as 

 at present — it is covered with grass, and inhabited by sheep 

 and less desirable immigrants in the shape of rabbits and 

 foxes. 



Next morning I was very pleased at a kindly remark of 

 Scott's : " Taylor, I dreamt of your lecture last night. How 

 could I live so long in the world and not know something of 

 so fascinating a subject ! " 



Atkinson had been having successes with the fish-trap, 

 and I went out with him to see the sport. We tramped 

 about half a mile over the ice to the north-west. Here was 

 a hole in the ice three feet across. It was filled with new 

 mushy ice, but we soon chipped this out and flung it to one 

 side. Then we hauled at the rope and pulled up the trap. 

 It was a cylinder of wire netting about three feet long with 

 re-entrant ends, so that the fish could enter at the centre, 

 but (nosing along the walls) had not sense enough to get 

 out again. It showed beautiful phosphorescence as it rose 

 out of the water, for the days were, of course, quite dark 

 now. 



