PROBLEM OF THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN ARTESIAN BASIN. 137 



claiming that all other geologists in Australia were at one 

 with him in favour of a purely meteoric derivation of the 

 waters in the Great Basin. 



When in Australia in 1914, through the generous invita- 

 tion of the Commonwealth Government, the author found 

 that, so far from this being the case, quite a number of the 

 local geologists were perfectly ready to admit that many 

 aspects of the problem could better be explained by the 

 rival hypothesis, and there seemed to be a fairly general 

 opinion, that neither view alone would account for all the 

 facts observed, and that further investigation of the problem 

 was therefore highly desirable. 



The papers by Gregory and Symmonds have certainly 

 been of immense service in directing attention to this 

 question, which is one so intimately bound up with the 

 welfare of Australia, and it cannot be doubted that this 

 novel presentation of the subject, has stimulated in a con- 

 siderable degree scientific investigation of the Artesian 

 Basin, which has borne fruit in the two valuable reports of 

 the Interstate Conference (1912 and 1914); it is reassuring 

 also to find that a number of contentions or suggestions by 

 Gregory or Symmonds, originally received with somewhat 

 violent opposition, have either been partially admitted or 

 else recognised as being worthy of further research. 



The Great Artesian Basin is perhaps the finest instance 

 known of a geological problem to which the statistical 

 method — the quantitative and final stage in geological 

 investigation — can be applied, and, though the data pub- 

 lished concerning the numerous bores are often incomplete 

 in many important details, and uncertainties are constantly 

 appearing, yet it is believed that enough material is avail- 

 able of sufficient accuracy to enable deductions to be drawn 

 with a certain amount of precision. In the compilation of 

 the accompanying maps, all available data have been con- 



