NOTES UPON FLOODS IN LAKE GEORGE. 259 
cottage he built, now occupied by Mr. Beit. The only water at 
the northern end of the lake, was a waterhole at the termination 
of the swamp, called ‘Agamatong,’ but familiarly known by 
teamsters and shepherds as the ‘muddy waterhole.’ Dead trees 
of large size stood on the side of the lake. We went up the 
range at Geary’s Gap, at about 12 miles south, towards 
Bungendore. This road is now not used, I was at this place in 
January last, but just before the 7 inches of rain fell, so I could 
not ascertain whether that effected the lake. It is a matter of 
speculation whether the lake will ever dry up again. It was 
pretty full in about 1828, when, I think, Sir Terence Murray 
first went there, and it was certainly dry in 1838. It filled in 
1852, when I had left the district, and has continued nearly full 
since. Cod and perch were both sent to the pond at Mr. Beit’s 
cottage, by Sir Terence, but the latter did not increase. They 
were caught by draining a pond in the Queanbeyan River, and 
were transported in a water cart. I have over and over again 
seen the cattle miles off on the level plain of the lake bed, as if 
they were walking in the air. Mr. John King, whom I knew 
very well, lived at ‘ Agamatong’ a cottage named after the water 
holes as above. I forgot to say that the race I have spoken of 
was always a dry one, and that the lagoon did not fill ; we had no 
rain in those days. I saw the Murrumbidgee in 1838 a chain of 
ponds above the junction of the Colter, below this little stream it 
ran fairly.” 
Mr. Alexander Dyce, of Gundaroo, under date Ist June, 1884, 
says: “From 1838 until 1842 the lake was used as grazing plain 
by numerous stock-owners. Messrs. Packer, Dyce, and Guise, 
had herds of cattle there. The springs of 1842 and 1843 were 
wet, accompanied with heavy falls of snow, which had the effect 
as Mr. Kenny says of covering a small portion of the lake on the 
eastern or deepest part. From 1843 until 1850 the lake water 
diminished, and in 1851 I walked across the bed of the lake 
from Geary’s Gap to Kenny’s Point, and this year there was not 
a single drop of water on the lake, even the (see Mr. Mowle’s 
letter) muddy waterhole was dry, which was seldom the case 
r. Kenny’s account of 1852 is quite correct. 1853 gradually 
‘ake is a very quick growing tree, and does not appear to live after 
the land around becomes submerged.” 
