258 NOTES UPON FLOODS IN LAKE GEORGE. 
on the banks, but the entire absence of tree, stump, or root, in the 
bed of the lake conveyed the idea that it was never dry long enough 
to admit the growth of timber. As it required several dry seasons 
to exhaust Lake George, I cannot suppose that the subsoil was at 
all porous, indeed quite the opposite, as it was a long time drying 
it up, and apparently by evaporation. I do not think the state 
of Lake George will determine the rainfall of surrounding country 
as compared with years passed by. In former times both timber 
and grass helped to retain the rain as it fell on the ground, and 
there might be a good average of rainfall during the year without 
its swelling the creeks or reaching the lake, but in years when the 
rain fell heavily and had no time to soak in the lake might be 
considerable smaller without more than an average rainfall. 
I am told Bungendore Creek is thus altered and now runs a strong 
stream, at times, towards the lake. Between 1834 and 1841 I 
never knew even a flood pass Bungendore township at least 3 
miles from the lake. 
“In the Bega country, near Twofold Bay, deep rivers became 
sanded up by the washing from the hills and gullies of the soil, 
the cattle tracks having first become small drains, the absence of 
grass also baring the ground. I have not visited Lake George for 
the last twenty years, but I am told that the surrounding country 
is much altered, trees dead; but whether this alteration will raise or 
lower water in Lake George remains to be seen, but this difference 
should be taken into account when the present years are com 
pared with the past.” 
Mr. 8. M. Mowle, under date 7th May, 1885, says: “I have 
had much pleasure in reading your account of Lake George, 4 
un 
we used to call, ‘the marked tree line.’ Sir Terence Murray 
was always anxious to have water in this lagoon, and he cut @ race 
for this purpose from the chain of waterholes which pass the ‘Z 
