8 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



COMPAEISON OF EVAPOEATION BESULTS IN NEW 

 SOUTH WALES AND SOUTH AFEICA. 



By Garwood Alston. 

 (Bead June, 1895.) 



My object this evening is twofold : first to place before the Society 

 some data which I think will be interesting, and next to draw atten- 

 tion to a service which, I take the liberty of suggesting, is very 

 poorly supported by the Executive of the day, and which has even 

 been more poorly treated in past years. I allude to what is here 

 called the Meteorological Commission. This might be a misnomer 

 perhaps if, as I should like to see, an Office were established taking 

 over, not only the duties of the present Commission, but with 

 instructions to record all natural facts as they become known in 

 Geology, Botany, Climatic differences and kindred subjects, and, for 

 my present purpose, more especially to record what becomes of that 

 part of our natural heritage which takes the form of rain. 



Not venturing to suggest a suitable name for a problematical 

 Office, I will now pass a few remarks on this Beport for 1893 by the 

 Government Astronomer of New South Wales, which was laid on 

 your table at your last meeting. I was particularly struck by its 

 title ; Mr. Bussell boldly and plainly calls it ' Bain, River, and 

 Evaporation Observations,' and, at my request, your Secretary 

 kindly lent me the volume for perusal. 



The scope of the Report is most quickly gathered from a glance 

 at the four maps at the end of the book. The first of them gives 

 the mean monthly rainfall for each area, comprised between two 

 ordinary parallels of latitude and longitude at single degree intervals, 

 with a supplementary diagram in an upper corner showing the com- 

 parative rainfall for each year since 1870. The second map shows 

 the comparative total rainfalls for 1893 in a rather peculiar but 

 perfectly intelligible form, and the third gives monthly comparisons 

 for the same period, both referring the data to the same areas as in 

 the first case. . 



It is to the fourth map I wish to direct especial notice to-night ; 

 it gives in a simple, graphic form the rise, fall, and duration of 

 floods in the western rivers of the Colony, the Murray, the 

 mysterious Darling, and their tributaries, and is, with its descriptive 



