Rain Producing Influences in SoiUJt Australia 91 



The Upper North (lat. s^ ^o 33) ^vas so badly hit by the 

 droughts of 1895-1902, that its cultivated area declined from 

 SoOjOOO to about 500,000 acres, or by nearly 40 per cent., and it 

 also suffered stock losses from which it took many years to re- 

 cover. Even yet this division, though showing rapid increase 

 of late, carries scarcely more stock than in those early years, 

 1885 to 1890, and less than in 1891 and 1892. As regards the 

 effects from growing crops, it is evident that this cannot be 

 great, at all events in the Upper North, unless we take into 

 account the greatly increased vigour of growth due to recently 

 improved cultivation methods, and the use of fertilisers. These 

 certainly tend to produce far more vigorous growth during the 

 spring months, and favour later sowing. 



A not improbable factor is, however, the clearing of the 

 country, which improves convectional action, and therefore makes 

 thunder-showers of more likely occurrence. In spite of the 

 stationary or retrograde conditions of agriculture, the needs of 

 stock have probably made progress in ring-barking and scrub- 

 clearing continuous so that the area of cleared hilly country 

 should be steadily increasing. 



Influence of the Lakes. 



The foregoing are probable contributory factors, but the lie 

 of the area of greatest rainfall improvement points distinctly to 

 Lake Torrens as its chief origin. With regard to the state of 

 this Lake or of L. Frome, which should share the same fortune, 

 I have been able so far to get little definite information, though 

 various people, some with 40 or 50 years' experience of the 

 interior, most of whom were interviewed by Mr. Bromley, the 

 State Meteorologist, have contributed their impressions. All 

 agree that Lakes Torrens and Frome are rather immense salt 

 pans than true lakes, and only rarely show any extensive areas 

 of water surfaces. Mr. Price, of Frome Downs, writes as follows : 

 ''There are about 20 big creeks which, after rain in Flinders 

 Range, empty into Lake Frome. This water all disappears in a 

 few hours after the creeks cease running. The Lake is always 

 very boggy, and no animal can cross it." Lake Torrens appears 

 to behavfc much in the same way. 



It would seem then that the water discharged from time to 

 time into these depressions goes to dilute a semi-liquid mass, 

 the water constituent of which being intensely salt and of high 



3a 



