158° HISTORY OF FLOODS IN THE RIVER DARLING. 
i with some intermission for three weeks ; 1835 seems tohave _ 
a dry year, and 1836 a wet one. In Ju ly, 1836, all tribu- — 
Se of the Murray were in high flood ; at Bathurst in the 
ning of July, snow lay afoot thick on the ground, and enough 
rain had fallen to last three months; and the severity of this 
winter in the interior was unprece edent ed, and is said by Mr. 
Bonney to have been very wet on the western nid of the range ; 
é 
there were considerable floods in the Darling. The great rain 
storm on the Darling in January, 1885, had its exact prototype 
in January, 1866, long known as the great January rain, which — 
made a rise in the river at Wilcannia of 18 feet, and that of 1885 
did 28 feet. Unfortunately we cannot trace this great rain storm 
back through pos years, but we know that both of them travelled — 
across country om Wilcannia to the coast, passing over Lake’ 3 
George ; and it is al suggestive that the only record of January, — 
1847, along the whole storm-track was from a solitary observer — 
with a rain-gauge at Naas Valley, not far from Lake George, and — 
he says :—“ January 5, 1847, was remarkable for the number of 
thunderstorms which passed over at 10 am. A smart shower 
began at 1 p.m.; another smart shower, with ge and thunder 
lightning ; and all the afternoon to 9 p.m. we had a series of — 
storms in which 1-40 in. rain fell,” so that he acta experien ae 
a storm similar to those of January, 1866 and 1885, whether it 
doubt that it did. 1870 again seems to stand alone. It is very 
much to be regretted that proper records of these rivers were not. 
kept from the first ; we should now be, if they had, in a m 
better position than we are to ps sa the: navigation of the Darling, — 
and the question necessarily connected with that—the periodicity et 
the seasons. am _ sure that much more be added to 
what I have said, for there are many who remember a river 
floods since the stations were first taken up there, and I hope they 
will give me any information _ can that will help to illucidate 
this subject. I cannot close this paper without recording MY — 
obligations to those who have ne so much trouble to give me 
vere and whose names are mentioned in what gone” 
ore. 
ie kd hc 
Lit, but all the 
3 to 5 feet et d it, but a€ 
to deep, he tried vainly to g raliged to male 
_ country was so wet and boggy that he was ob “ 
for high land. He speakes of the river rising several 
