158 
THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
of being a rapid mountain stream, subject to heavy floods, 
which are said to rise sixty feet in a night. There is an 
island of boulders and waterworn pebbles at its junction 
with the Buchan of some thirty acres, completely denuded 
of soil, by the strength of the current. Not liking to put 
the fish in the muddy water, I carried them to the junction, 
and wading through the Buchan, I liberated them some 
distance below the junction, but in the clear water of the 
Buchan, which did not intermingle for a considerable 
distance with the muddy waters of the Snowy Eiver— just 
as is seen at the confluence of the Ehone and the Arve, 
near Geneva, where the blue waters of the lake unite, but 
do not mingle with, the muddy waters brought down by 
the melted snows from Chamounix. I got rather chafied 
for wading into the water unnecessarily, but wet clothes 
did not seem of much consequence at the moment, and the 
strong heat of the weather soon dried them. 
Mr. Howitt went to make some geological examinations 
of the pebble and boulder drift, which contained specimens 
of many varieties of rocks, all rounded and waterworn; 
even large blocks of over two feet in diameter had appa- 
rently been rolled down by the force of the current in 
times of flood. The channel of the Snowy river is probably 
300 feet to 400 feet wide, and near its confluence with 
the Buchan runs between high steep ranges. It is more 
than twice the width, and has three or four times the 
volume of the Tarra, and runs swiftly over pebbly 
shoals and rocky rapids. It is said to be often muddy 
from rains in the hills, but is generally bright and 
clear. There is a waterfall about twenty-five miles above the 
junction, about twelve feet high, but it is not an abrupt 
descent, and salmon could ascend it easily. There is no 
other barrier that I could hear of. It is well stocked with 
fish of good quality. The temperature of its water, to my 
