63 



by the soil, for it certainly did not remain on the sides of those 

 hills as a sheet of water to be dissipated Uy evaporation. One has 

 only to stand at the lake and look at its surrounding mountains 

 to be impressed with the impossibility of water remaining there 

 unless it sinks into the soil and rocks. 



We have therefore in the measures which have been made at 

 Lake George strong evidence of the possibility of rainfall sinking 

 rapidly into the mountains as we know has been the case in the 

 Darling River basin by the measures made there during the past 

 ten years. It is not necessary that I should here refer in detail 

 to the many well known cases in which water which should reach 

 the Darling has been observed to sink rapidly into the soil. Un- 

 fortunately in nearly all cases the circumstances are such as to 

 preclude measurements, and I was therefore the more anxious to 

 bring the facts about Lake George, which are based upon measure- 

 ments before the members this evening, because they shew m a 

 more satisfactory way than can be done for the Darling that the 

 water must sink into the soil very rapidly on a piece of country 

 very similar to many parts of the Darling basin, and go a long 

 way towards confirming the statements I made about the under- 

 ground waters of the Darling just ten years since. 



It is evident therefore from the measures made at Lake George 

 that the rain there does sink into the soil where it falls, very much 

 as it has been supposed to do on the Darling basin. It is also 

 evident that in very heavy rains a considerable quantity of water 

 from the flat country does find its way into the Darling, a fact 

 fully proved by the instance just given and many others which 

 could be added ; that an enormous quantity of water many times 

 what now passes down the river has to be accounted for, after 

 making full allowance for evaporation and other causes of loss, 

 admits I conceive, of no doubt whatever. When we go into 

 figures to see how much it is, we get a surprising result, viz., that 

 it is not less than ten-times and probably is sixteen times what 

 the Darling now carries away. This result is based upon ten 

 years' measures of rain and river, and from these it appears that 

 the Darling carries away only 1^ per cent, of the rainfall : while 

 the Murray, a river existing under similar conditions of climate, 

 wind, rain and evaporation, carries away 25 per cent, of the rain- 

 fall. The only diflerence I can see which seems to ofi-er any clue 

 to this great disparity in the percentage of rain carried off is the 

 extremely porous character of much of the Darling basin. In parts 

 of which it is a matter of common observation, that the rain sinks 

 into the soil freely and yields little or none to the rivers and 

 there seems to be no doubt that abundance of water will be found 

 Delow the surface both for pastoral and to some email extent for 

 agricultural purposes. 



