186 Probable Influence of Evaporation on the 



Diamond Creek, called the Sugar Loaf Creek, would be the 

 only stream that would be practically available as a feeder 

 for the reservoir ; and although the watershed area of the 

 Sugar Loaf Creek is very limited, and its discharge in 

 summer very insignificant, much tunnelling through hard 

 schists would be requisite, in order to convey any portion of 

 its water to Yan Yean. 



The contamination of river water caused by a dense popu- 

 lation on its banks, has been very frequently assigned as a 

 very cogent reason for preferring the Plenty water to the 

 Yarra water. 



Yet, for that very reason, a decided preference should have 

 been given to the Yarra. For the banks of the Upper Yarra 

 consist, with few exceptions, of steep, rocky, stringy-bark 

 ranges, frequently precluding all access to the water, and 

 totally unsuited for the location of a dense population. But 

 the Upper Plenty District, around the Yan Yean reservoir, 

 is a fine, rich, well-watered, and well timbered tract of 

 country, already possessing within its limits, a numerous 

 agricultural population, and the rising village of Whittlesea. 



Now, supposing that one of the owners of land abutting 

 on the Yan Yean reservoir, or draining into it, Avere to 

 convert such land into a township, and by puffing it into 

 notoriety on account of its proximity to a magnificent fresh- 

 water lake, lovely scenery, rich land, and so forth, were to 

 cause the township on paper to become a township in reality, 

 a population of only two thousand persons thus located, 

 would cause a greater amount of deterioration in the water 

 of the reservoir, than would be inflicted on the Yarra by a 

 densely-peopled town of fifty thousand inhabitants formed on 

 the banks of that river at Heidelberg. Although the Plenty 

 affords an unusually soft and excellent water, that of the 

 Yarra, taken from any point above Dight's Mills, has been 

 proved by a quantitative and qualitative analysis to be yet 

 more excellent ; and I see no reason for departing from the 

 opinion I formerly expressed, relative to the superior purity 

 of a supply derivable from the Yarra, above the Yarra Bend 

 Asylum. Those persons whose impressions of the Yarra 

 have been influenced by its sluggish aspect near Melbourne, 

 would have formed a more favourable opinion of this beauti- 

 ful stream had they seen it in the upper portions of its course, 

 where it rapidly rushes down its stony bed with sparkhng 

 briUiancy, or else forms foaming cataracts over ledges of 

 rock. 



In concluding my remarks, I have avoided all allusions to 



