20 



The instrument I have designed consists of a copper float 

 wliich rises or falls with the water in the stream in which it 

 floats freely ; attached to tliis float is a rod carrying a pencil 

 which is pressed by a spring against a cylinder on which is fixed 

 i\ sheet of graduated I'ecording paper. Inside the cylinder is 

 placed clockwork to turn it on its vertical axis, and constructed 

 to go fourteen days. As the cylinder is turned by the clockwork 

 the pencil attached to tlie float marks the height of the water on 

 the paper graduated to inches and decimal parts. The whole of 

 the apparatus is intended to be enclosed in a wooden case and 

 attached to a post driven into the bed of the river and fenced 

 round for its protection. The instrument is designed on a 

 principle similar to that of instruments for recording automati- 

 cally other kinds of observations, but, so far as I know, no 

 previous instrument has been designed for river gauging. 



The following are the advantages of the instrument : — 



1. Ejjiciency. — The record of the instrument will be continuous 

 day and night. The present system of taking such observations 

 say, only twice a day, is very imperfect, as in the intervals floods 

 may come down the river and pass the gauge unrecorded, and, in 

 this way, all present river gaugings are more or less inaccurate. 



2. Economy. — As pointed out, this gauge can be fixed on a 

 stream and left in operation, and only requires to be visited once 

 in fourteen days ; for this reason the expenses of an official in 

 constant attendance can be dispensed with. As to the cost of 

 the instrument, a leading instrument maker of Adelaide has 

 estimated the cost at about twenty pounds. 



3. Saving of Time. — This instrument, if adopted, would facili- 

 tate the important work of gauging the flow of water in our 

 rivers, as, by fixing an instrument on each stream, a large number 

 can be gauged simultaneously ; in fact, the work could be carried 

 on with accuracy and inexpensiveness, and the records collected 

 and sent in as regularly as our rainfall observations are now 

 taken throughout the colony. 



I will only add that I have handed over my invention to the 

 Government of this colony, with the hope that it may be utilized 

 by them in the important work which has now been undertaken 

 of taking gaugings of the flow of our streams in South Australia. 



