Notes upon Floods in Lake George. 
By H. C. Russert, B.A., F.R.S., &e. 
[Read before the Royal Society, N.S.W., 1 December, 1886.] 
Tue history of floods in our rivers and ari if it could be. 
accurately written, would form one of the mo st important chapters 
the laws which contr ges in seasons that have such 
prominent effects upon a country like this, almost wholly devoted 
to pastoral pursuits is, ever, impossible now to find the 
materials for such a ory, and the few facts which have 
before you; in order to make the record permanent, and if 
possible draw from the recesses of memories still active, important 
testimony upon the question under discussion. So far as I have 
anything like a theory, which would place limits of time, and 
extent to the floods which have from time to time covered up tens 
of thousands of acres of the richest pasture land for years, and 
I have not therefore to detain you by discussing any theory fret 
has already been given to the worl nd before giving my o 
view upon the subject, I should like to call your attention to the 
fact that the floods in a lake which has no outlet produce very 
different effects from those we see in rivers, In the latter case 
the water speedily returns to its level and leaves a record for the 
season in which it took place. But in the lake a similar flood 
ces an accumulation of water which takes many years to 
evaporate, and to a certain extent masks the effects of subsequent 
rains, such at least is the case in Lake George, which has no 
outlet except evaporation. My object in collecting these facts 
soften out the curves, and the particular floods cannot be seen so 
well, and in some cases not at all, and then the history of the 
rising and falling of the. lake is too incomplete. 
Only a small ridge divides the catchment of the lake from that 
of the Hawkesbury River, and we know from rain observations 
