TOPOGRAPHY OF NEW SOUTH WALKS. 



'37 



the Upper Murray, the Murrumbidgee, the Lachlan and the Darling. The last-named 

 has some of its sources in Queensland, and the whole basin thus drained is estimated 

 at one hundred and ninety-eight thousand square miles. The area is vast enough to fill 



NOTHING IN Mill 



a Mississippi or an Amazon, and yet so uncertain and occasionally so scanty is the rain-fall, 

 and so great is the ground-spakage, that the Murray at its outlet into Lake Alexandrina 

 is not really a large river. Careful calculations have shewn that there is carried to the 

 sea only a small fraction of the rain-fall ; the rest soaks into the soil, and when in 

 excess finds its way to the coast by under-ground channels. These subterranean supplies 

 are now being tapped with the best results. 



The Murray, which is the southernmost of the western rivers of New South Wales, 

 takes its rise near Mount Kosciusko in the Muniong Range of the Australian Alps, and 

 from the source of its tributary, the Indi, to Chowella below the junction of the Darling 

 it forms the boundary of New South Wales. It is occasionally navigable as far as 

 Albury, when the river is in flood from heavy rains or the melting of the snow on the 

 Alps ; but practically Echuca is the head of navigation. This river was first opened 

 to commerce by Captain Cadell, who tempted by a bonus offered by the South 

 Australian Government built the Lady Augusta in Sydney, navigated her round the 

 coast, took her over the dangerous bar at the mouth, and ascended the river as far as 

 Swan Hill, where the Victorian stream, the Marraboor, flows into the Murray. 



The Murrumbidgee, the next river to the north, also takes its rise in the Australian 

 Alps, not very far from the source of the Murray, and it drains the greater part of the 

 north-lying slopes of that mountain mass. The various streams, which flow north for a 

 time, turn to the- west and unite to form the Murrumbidgee, which then runs westerly 

 till it joins the Lachlan at Nap Nap. Its drainage area is estimated at five and twenty 

 thousand square miles. It is occasionally navigable as far as Gundagai, but steamers 

 seldom go beyond Wagga Wagga, and the water-transit is now largely superseded by 

 the railway. Next in order among the northern rivers is the Lachlan, its principal 



