128 E. F. PITTMAN. 



yielded a flow of 1,600 gallons per day of very saline water 

 at a depth of 2,512 feet. Another bore at the Racecourse, 

 four miles from Brisbane, reached a depth of 1,781 feet, 

 and yielded 8,228 gallons per day. Both these flows are 

 believed to be of local origin. 



Darling River Rainfall and Run-off.— The late Mr. H. C. 



Russell, Government Astronomer of N. S. Wales, first drew 

 attention to the fact that only a very small percentage 

 (estimated by him at l*46 /°) of the rainfall on the Darling 

 catchment area actually flowed past Bourke through the 

 channel of the river, whereas he assumed that in the case 

 of the Murray the run-off of the river amounted to 25°/° of 

 the rainfall. He concluded therefore, that a large propor- 

 tion of the Darling rainfall must pass underground. Com- 

 menting on this, Professor Gregory says, 1 



"The view that the ascent of the water in the flowing wells is 

 due to the pressure of water in the Queensland hills does not seem 

 to me to be any longer tenable. The responsibility for this view 

 rests with the meteorologists. It was originally based on a 75% 

 under-estimate of the discharge of the Darling River, a 300% 

 over-estimate of the discharge of the Murray, and a large exagger- 

 ation of the estimated proportion of the rain discharged by rivers 

 in general." 



He also makes the following statement, 2 



"The Murray River and the Darling both discharge about the 

 same proportions of the water that falls upon their basins; and 

 considering the climate and the nature of the country that they 

 drain, the amount is not unduly low." 



If these emphatic statements could be proved to be 

 correct, it must be admitted that the evidence in favour 

 of the meteoric origin of the artesian water would be seri- 

 ously discounted, but indeed they are very far from being 

 correct. Mr. Russell's original estimates of the run-off of 



1 Ibid., p. 336. 2 Ibid., p. 297. 



