PROBLEMS OF THE ARTESIAN WATER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 127 



The fact that "that part of the basin beneath Lake Eyre is 

 far beloiv the level of the outlet into the Gulf of Car- 

 pentaria " is of no consequence so long as the source of 

 the water, or in other words the outcrop of the porous beds, 

 is at a sufficient altitude above the submerged granite barrier 

 at Manfred Downs. If Gregory had continued his section 

 from Charleville on to Toowoomba, as lias been done in the 

 sketch (Plate VIII), the fact that the porous beds there 

 have an outcrop at least 1,000 feet higher than Charleville 

 would have been apparent. It may be added that the water 

 beneath Lake Eyre is not stagnant for the same reason 

 that the water at E, in figure 1, (which is reproduced from 



p . , . p* 



44 The Dead Heart of Australia ") would not be stagnant, 

 but would flow over the barrier at F, so long as its source 

 is at a higher level. 



An inspection of the country between Brisbane and 

 Toowoomba would probably convince Professor Gregory 

 that the artesian basin has no outlet in the neighbourhood 

 of the first named place. It will be seen in the section 

 (Plate VIII), that Toowoomba lies at an elevation of about 

 2,000 feet above sea-level, that the Triassic sandstones 

 here have a westerly dip, and that immediately east of 

 Toowoomba there is a steep escarpment leading down to 

 the coastal plain on which Brisbane is situated. A con- 

 siderable outcrop of palaeozoic rocks (regarded by Dr. Jack 

 as Lower Carboniferous) occurs near Brisbane, and it is 

 more than possible that an area of Permo-Carboniferous 

 sediments may underlie the Triassic sandstones near the 

 mountains. A bore at Laidley, 51 miles west of Brisbane, 



