RAINFALL OF SOUTHERN RIVERINA. 493 
make this an exhaustive enquiry into the rainfall of the district 
lying between the Murray and the Murrumbidgee. 
Out of one hundred and twenty-five stations herein discussed, 
the Government Astronomer has furnished me with the particulars 
of seventy-three stations; for the remaining fifty-two I am indebted 
to the proprietors of these stations who very kindly responded to 
my request for copies of their records. 
I.—Area under consideration. 
II.—Divisions. 
III.—Tables. 
IV.—Summary. 
(I.) The district which, for the purpose of this paper, is termed 
the Southern Riverina, embraces all the area between the Murray 
and Murrumbidgee Rivers, and extending as far east as the 
meridian of 147° 30’. The locality to the eastward of that 
Meridian is termed the western slopes of the southern table- 
land. The records of the town of Aibury, situated in the extreme 
south-east of this area, have been omitted. The reason for doing 
this is that the township is surrounded by hills, a fact, which, in 
My opinion, considerably affects the rainfall. I mention this to 
show that only stations which may be said to belong to the 
Southern Riverina have been selected, and that the results are 
not simply a large collection of statistics irrespective of locality. 
As Albury has a very long and valuable rainfall record, you might 
be sure that there was a valid reason for omitting it. The area 
of the district is approximately 19,700 square miles, or embracing 
about twelve and a half millions of acres of the finest wool and 
wheat growing lands of New South Wales. ‘he length is about 
two hundred and thirty miles, and average width about eighty- 
ind miles. The surface may be characterised as a generally 
sloping plain falling from east to west. The ‘altitudes on the 
eastern side are given thus for Wagga Wagga 615 feet, Albury 
530 feet, the level at Deniliquin is 320 feet, while at Balranald 
about 230 feet, being a fall of about two feet per mile for the first 
mterval and one foot per mile for the second, 
