THE RAINFALL OF AUSTRALIA. 253 
THE RAINFALL OF AUSTRALIA. 
By JOHN BARLING. 
[With Plates XL.- XLI.] 
[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, December 2, 1908. } 
In bringing before your notice the rainfall charts now 
exhibited, and which are designed to shew at a glance the 
rainfall system of Australia, giving its chief characteristics, 
I must ask your indulgence if my explanation of them is 
not at once clear. The time involved in getting together 
such details, so as to present a comprehensive view of the 
whole, not being at the disposal of many, will, I trust, 
make such a compilation as that now before you interesting 
and valuable. Before going further I have to make my 
acknowledgments to the official heads of the Meteoro- 
logical Stations of Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, 
Melbourne, and Hobart, for much of the information given 
on the charts, and, without which, these could not have 
been made. 
I am treating the subject from the standpoint of a non- 
scientific man. I can claim to be nothing more than this 
myself, but the non-scientist can collect data for the 
scientist, and I trust this compilation will prove to be 
valuable. 
On the map of Australia I have shewn the annual rain- 
fall as it occurs in characteristic places on its surface—by 
shewing more places I should only have cumbered the chart 
with superfluous details—places intermediate have gener- 
ally such a rainfall as one would presuppose after looking 
at the map. The spaces between the concentric rings 
represent 10 inches in every case, and each ray a year, the 
