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SUBTERRANEAN DRAINAGE IN THE INTERIOR. 



By T. E. Rawlinson, C.E. 

 Communicated by C. Todd, C.M.G. [Read September 17, 1878.] 



[Abridged.] 



Tbe author states the object of his Paper to be to enquire into the 

 cause of the disappearance of the vast bodies of river water which collect 

 on the inner watershed of the bordering coast ranges of Australia, and 

 considers this can only be accounted for by their absorption into porous 

 beds of sand, gravel, &c, under the tertiaries occupying the interior 

 basin of the Continent. 



To facilitate such enquiry, the author suggests that the Philosophical 

 Society should collect geological data supplied by the sinking of wells 

 and dams in various parts of the country. He then notes the following 

 facts : — 



The Murray River, before receiving the'Ovens, flows with a volume 

 of 2,660f cubic feet per minute. The Ovens River contributes 596g 

 cubic feet per minute, but with this addition the volume of the water of 

 the River Murray, below the junction with the Ovens, is only 2,975 

 cubic feet, instead of 8,260j cubic feet, which is the amount of the 

 Murray with the volume of the Ovens River added, but, further down 

 the River Murray is diminished to 2,411 cubic feet, just before it 

 receives the River Goulburn. Now here is a distinct loss of 850 cubic 

 feet of water per minute in a course of a few miles. 



The rivers of the north watershed of Victoria, such as the Loddon, 

 Campaspe, Avon, Avoca, Richardson, and Wimmera, which yield vast 

 quantities of water in the wet season, and near their sources are peren- 

 nial streams, fail to have a volume at all in the lower part of their 

 course as they approach their outlet in the River Murray during the 

 summer season. 



