WELL AND RIVER WATERS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 473 



as the season got perfectly dry it became so salt they could not 

 use it. Precisely the same thing occurs near to Camden, where 

 there is a nursery, and as the season gets dry the water in the 

 creek gets so salt it cannot be used for plants, but wlien there is 

 abundance of pasture the salt is not perceptible. So it depends a 

 very great deal upon the season. I recollect many years ago 

 passing over the Liverpool Plains, and the water was so salt they 

 could not use it for sheep. This was a very dry season— 1858. 



Mr. F. B. Kyxgdox— I rise to thank Mr. Dixon for his paper. 

 It would certainly be a pity if the data he has been accumulating 

 should be hidden away. It is more fitting that such valuable 

 contributions should find a place from time to time in our Journal. 

 I know of two instances in the city where brewers put down wells 

 to a great depth in the hope of getting good water, and the deeper 

 they went the more salt it became. With regard to the purity 

 of the water from the JSTepean, perhaps the heavy rainfall of the 

 last few months may have had a great deal to do with the dilution 

 of the nitrogenous matter. 



Mr. H. C. Russell— I should like to ask Mr. Dixon if he has 

 any analysis of the deep well-waters of the interior? 



Air. Dixon— With regard to :^Ir. Moore's observations, I point 

 out in the paper two or three cases in which alterations have taken 

 place in the various waters in consequence of the clianges in the 

 seasons. No doubt too, a large quantity of water falling on the 

 surface of the soil must dilute the water so much that the impuri- 

 ties become very much less. And the same remark would apply 

 to the case referred to by Mr. Kyngdon in regard to the dilution 



regard to the deep well-waters in the interior, I would like to 



I'got som"^ sa'lts'from soTaHf the salt-water— it was practically of 

 similar composition to sea salt ; and this is the case also ^Mtn tne 

 deep wells in Sydney. This water probably fiows from the moun- 

 tains towards the sea. When you sink down you draw oflHhe 

 waters out of the fissures from which the water is escaping to the 

 sea. The fresh and salt water mix together to an extent depend- 

 ing altogether on climatic changes. As I mentioned m the paper 

 it is of great importance that we should know something of these 

 deep well-waters in the interior. Many people in speaking of salt 

 and fresh water take no account wliatever of brackish wat.n ^ They 



water may contain a proportion of salt, and still .ir tn ^li \\,i ot o 

 the taste. It has been found in India, wher- irrigation is carried 

 on in places where no drainage takes place, that particular patches 

 of ground have been rendered perfectly barren througli the con- 

 tinued annlicatinn of water. This fact should be taken into 



