58 REPORT—1905. 
to the sediment which it might bring down. This important Committee 
took the whole world for its range. 
Mr. John Hopkinson said that no new Committee was needed for 
ascertaining the amount of rainfall for this country, as that was already 
thoroughly worked up by Dr. H. R. Mill, who had an army of about 
4,000 observers whose returns were published annually in ‘ British Rain- 
fall’; and he was sure it would be greatly to the advancement of science 
if all returns were sent to Dr. Mill rather than that there should be a 
separate department dealing with the same subject. 
The Rev. J. O. Bevan explained that the work of the Committee he re- 
presented was not to determine the amount of the rainfall, but to determine 
the ratio of the river-discharge to the whole of the rainfall in particular 
districts, which of course involved questions relating to the position of 
the soil and the amount of water that is absorbed by the soil. It had to 
determine these particular ratios, and not to determine the absolute amount 
of rainfall ; and another thing was to determine the character of the 
solution in the discharge at the mouth of the river in relation to the 
different strata in the area over which the rainfall would go. 
Dr. H. R. Mill, a member of the new Committee, wrote : ‘The object 
of the new Committee is not to divert the rainfall records of this country 
from the existing publications, where they are most conveniently acces- 
sible, but to collect all published notices and to secure new observations 
of the composition of the dissolved matter in rain and river water, and 
also to deal with the subject of river-discharge. The work proposed does 
not overlap with that of any previously existing Committee.’ 
Mr. W. Whitaker proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which 
was carried by acclamation, and the proceedings then closed. 
