WATER SUPPLY IN THE INTERIOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 103 
and Central Divisions of the Colony, and it is certainly unreason- 
able to suppose that in the far west any set of men will be foun . 
foolish enough to engage in a kind of cultivation in which 
expenses would be tenfold ea and the cost of getting sii 
to market increased in the same ratio. Wells of some kind are 
almost anecessity on -_ large stationsituated on the western plains, 
because though water can be conserved in tanks or i to last 
for a very oma nals time, perhaps even as long as thre 
but I am quite sure that if any squatters or intending squatters 
were to attempt to water the dry back blocks by wells only, they 
would in nine cases out of ten be ruined before they got any 
returns. In every part of the world the search for artesian water 
has been a coutly and uncertain process ; and though I think the 
chances of o g it are as good in the interior of New South 
urface wa As time goes on perience gained in par- 
_ localities will make well- -boring _ a matter of uncertainty, 
and wells will become more and more numerous, each successful 
carat aki ored giving adjoining sete e a better chance to 
estimate the probabilities of success and cost in that particular 
locality ; but it must by no means be forgotten that nothing is 
more common than for bores to be put down within a few hundred 
feet of each other (as has been the case in the town of San Fran- 
cisco), and some will give powerful streamsof artesian water, while 
others, though sunk far below the level of the source of general 
supply, will be perfect ; 
If, as I suppose, the underground fresh water of the interior of 
New South Wales is contained in the sand-beds of a lacustrine or 
inland sea formation, out of which the soluble salts have been 
dissolved, the chances = obtaining artesian water, or water meres 
rise within easy reach from the surface, are unusually 
but yet I would = to aie who are engaged in the re of 
king the dry country, in the words of the wise councillor of 
Queen Elizabeth, (ators all things it is necessary that ye hasten 
slowly.” 
ConsERVATION OF SuRFACE WATER. 
ere are two ways by which surface water in the interior of 
New South waa may be stored: either in the natural waterco 
by means of dams and weirs, or, where there are no suitable water- 
