HISTORY OF FLOODS IN THE RIVER DARLING, 173 
“During last month I have had opportunities of seeing the 
G 
river is very shallow at the sand banks, in no instance did I see it 
Mr. W. H. Suttor, of Cangoura, says, under date March 11th, 
1886: “I went to the Darling in 1857, and in May and June the 
river was bank-high; this was about 1 00 miles above Wilcannia.” 
rs. A. F. L. Cole, under date 3 January, 1887, says: “I lived 
at Tapio Station, 15 miles up the river from Wentworth, and re- 
member that before 1848 the river was a chain of water holes, 
with small streams running between ; but in February, 1848, the 
water came down the river like a wall 10 to 12 feet high, much to 
our surprise, as we had no warning that a flood was coming. 
ood carried evieything beinee | it; but the following year, 1849, 
it was again a chain of water holes, so that we could cross it at 
many places. In the winter of 1852 there was a great flood in the 
Murray, and its waters flowed up the Darling as far as Pooncarie, 
but in October and November the Darling water came down with 
a strong current, and being backed up by “the Murray water, the 
river rose over the banks, sending water out back to the greatest 
tance I ever saw it, excepting in the great flood of May and 
June, 1864, the highest flood ever known. So much water got 
into the lakes and hollows on the east side of the Darling in 1864 
that the face of the country was quite altered for years after it.” 
aa sasiacale bigs otes at Cultowa Station—1858 to 1870. 
First steamers up the Darlin oir were the “Albury” and 
“Gemini,” in January, 1859, the latter going as far as Walgett. 
Geidabeoks Station then just occupi 
Seasons from end of 1858 to end of 1860. 
Drought, 1861 to 1863. 
Seasons good, 1863 and 1864. From 1865 they peered got 
worse until 1868 and part of 1869. They culminated in the most 
disastrous known since the settlement of the colonies, an 
immense number of sheep and cattle perishing from sheer starva- 
cae in New South ese — and Queensland. Sheep on 
too poor and week to ame of 
aeir being shepherded, var had to to be turned loose. y died 
fenced paddocks in Victoria, where country was thickly stocked ; 
