LXXVI. R. T. McKAY. 
The author has previously alluded to the enormous 
quantities of water discharged by the Darling after cyclonic 
disturbances, and he regrets that, owing to complete rain- 
fall data not being readily obtainable, he was unable to 
show the proportion of rainfall discharged during the flood 
year of 1890, when the flow of the Darling was 50% greater 
than that of the flow of the Murray below the confluence 
of the Murrumbidgee. 
“Tn the great flood of 1890, owing to tropical rains, the Darling 
resembled an inland sea, the spread of the water being 60 miles 
wide. Instances were given during this period of steamers dis- 
charging cargo 25 miles back from the river channel. The discharge 
of the Darling at Wilcannia for the year 1890 reached the enorm- 
ous volume of 717,000,000,000 cubic feet.”—The Murray River, 
Irrigation and Navigation, by Robert T. McKay, Sydney Uni- 
versity Engineering Society, 1903. 
Behaviour of Proposed Reservoir at Barren Jack, on the 
Murrumbidgee River.—The utilisation of the waters of the 
Murrumbidgee River for the purposes of irrigation has 
engaged the attention of various Governments of this State 
for the past ten years, and at last the proposal has taken 
definite shape. Owing to the low rainfall on the gathering 
grounds during the summer months—the months when 
irrigation is most needed—the flow of the Murrumbidgee 
River is not sustained, and provision is therefore necessary 
to impound the flood waters for distribution on the plain 
country. Surveys show that an excellent site for a dam 
exists at a place known as Barren Jack Mountain, a few 
miles below the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and 
Goodradigbee Rivers. The river at this spot passes through 
a narrow gorge several hundred feet in height, with granite 
outcrop in the bed of the river and mountain sides. The 
catchment area is 5,000 square miles, and contour surveys 
shew that a reservoir, if constructed to a height of 200 feet, 
