52 W. R. BROWNE. 



NOTE ON THE RELATION OP STREAMS TO GEO- 



LOGICAL STRUCTURE, WITH SPECIAL 



REFERENCE TO BOATHOOK BENDS. 



By W* R. Browne, b.Sc 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, July 6, 1921.'] 



In his interesting reports on the physiography of the 

 Federal Capital Territory and of Eastern Australia, 1 Mr. 

 (now Professor) Griffith Taylor has done a signal service 

 to physiographic science in Australia by drawing attention 

 to many facts and problems in connection with the river 

 drainage of the country. Some of Dr. Taylor's conclusions- 

 are based on actual personal observations in the areas 

 concerned, but, as he himself points out, it is impossible 

 for anyone to have a personal knowledge of the whole 

 region dealt with, and so suggestions have been made as 

 to the explanation and significance of certain physiographic 

 peculiarities which are made evident by a study of topo- 

 graphical maps. 



In both reports Dr. Taylor draws attention to the remark- 

 able and abnormal courses of certain of the tributaries of 

 the Upper Murrumbidgee and of some of the other rivers 

 in New South Wales and Queensland. These tributaries, 

 instead of meeting their trunk streams at angles which 

 are obtuse on the down-stream side, do just the reverse; 

 in other words, they run "up stream." To this type of 

 junction Dr. Taylor has applied the name "boathook bend," 

 and he considers that these boathook bends indicate river 

 capture, the tributaries formerly belonging to a system 



1 Bulls. 6 (191U) and 8 (1911), Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology^ 

 Melbourne. 



