152 



Failure of the Van Yean Reservoir, 



Australian sun. It does seem extraordinary, therefore, with 

 so little to lose, that we should be solicitous, at an immense 

 sacrifice of money, to provide an evaporating basin in the 

 vicinity of the river, sufficiently large to swallow up nine- 

 tenths of the small supply Avhich nature has thus provided for 

 our use. 



I confess to have some impatience for the publication of 

 the full report of the Committee, in order to learn what they 

 recommend to be done with this evaporating basin. A few 

 more such basins, of a size proportioned to our larger rivers, 

 would effectually secure the loss of all our river water, and 

 convert this beautiful province of Australia Felix into an 

 Australian desert. 



It may be said that, in commenting upon the opinions of 

 the two civil engineers who form the Committee, it is very 

 unlikely that I should be right, as such questions belong to 

 engineering, and are therefore strictly professional. An 

 attentive consideration of this paper, however, will show that 

 there are no questions involved which any person of ordinary 

 education may not clearly understand and appreciate ; and 

 therefore, simply as a member of the Philosophical Society, 

 it is perfectly competent for me to call in question any novel 

 methods of investigation adopted by the Committee, and to 

 say whether, in my opinion, these are legitimate and scientific, 

 or the reverse. 



But the great and important points upon which the success 

 or failure of the Yan Yean scheme depends do not belong 

 more to the province of the civil engineer than to the medical 

 profession. 



I have heard of civil engineers bridgmg the Menai btraits 

 Avith a stupendous tube of iron, and tunnelling the river 

 Thames, and building a leviathan steam ship of 25,000 tons, 

 to perform the voyage to Australia in thirty days ; and if the 

 Goulbum Eiver and the King Parrot Creek are to be brought 

 through granite mountains into the Yan Yean reservoir there 

 are still hio-her and greater laurels in store for our colonial 

 engineers. But I am not aware of any civil engineer who 

 has published original researches on the subject of Heat and 

 Evaporation. Hitherto this department of science has been 

 chiefly cultivated by members of the medical profession, 



I never heard of any civil engineer who had published 

 original investigations on Meteorology. This subject also 

 owes more to the medical profession than to the civii 

 engineer. 



