8 XXXII. Dr. J. V. Daneš: 



sella, Vine etc.) that actually „boathook". These latter literally point, 

 as usual, to a new divide". There can be not tne slightest doubt 

 about the fact that tne capture of the Burdekin systém by a pacifie 

 coastal stream has taken place very recently 1 ) — but I don't suppose 

 that those rivers did ever flow to the west, to the former cretaceous 

 sea (what Mr. Taylor attempts to prove), but that they formed an 

 independent basiû, the deposits of which íill to a great depth the 

 lower basin of the Cape River and probably will be found also od 

 other. places in the Suttor aud Belyando basins. 



I ain of the opinion that the little and shallow lake of Powlat- 

 hanga — a populär duck shooting resort for the résidents from 

 Charters Towers — is the relie of a formerly much larger lake, pre- 

 served only by two creeks closing its outlet by inereasing their fans 

 of waste. This explanation seems to me much more natural, there 

 being in the configuration of the country no proofs whatever for any 

 former water escape to the west. The desert sandstone on the Divi- 

 ding Plateau along the Central Railway and also along my route 

 from Aramac to Pentland is slightly warped as many profils show and 

 the formerly disconnected basins can be considérée! as „warp lakes", 

 but there is no evidence whatever that there was any former drai- 

 nage to the west. 



Nor does another opinion of Mr. Taylor seem to me fairly esta- 

 blished by the faets. (Page 10.) „The headwaters of the Diamentina 

 seems to exhibit a „palmtree" drainage > . . The présent divide be- 

 tween the Flinders anď the Diamentina is a region of fiat highland 

 known as the Hamilton Downs. To the south are outerops of the 

 hard „Desert Sandstone" which constitutes the Kynuna Opal Field . . . 

 It is reasonable to suppose that these hard mesas formed the original 

 divide, but that an uplift of the Hamilton Downs to the north has 

 led to the capture of the headwaters of the Flinders and of the Dia- 

 mentina. This is a plausible explanation of the anomalous drainage of 

 the Upper Diamentina." 



The Flinders River has lately considerably extended its drainage 

 to the east by capturing the headwaters of the Thomson River and 

 I see no proofs for a récent warping along the W.-E. axe of the Ha- 

 milton Downs Plateau, which might háve caused the eutting away of 

 the south western headwaters. In my opinion the Upper Diaman- 



a ) W. Poole, Physiography oí North Queensland. Report of the Twelfth 

 Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held at 

 Brisbane, 1909. Brisbane 1910. P. 316— 318. 



