88 
the leaching action can have been going on, that there is still so 
much yet to he removed. 
Going further north, the country still remains salt, irrespec- 
tive of whether granite or greenstone is the l)edrock, but there is 
no difficulty in getting fresh water daring rains for storage in 
dams. I'he surface layers of the ground have been washed fairly 
free from salt by the rains, and in favourable places fresh water 
‘'soaks” may be found, especially where fresh water j)ouring off 
bare granite rocks has accumulated under superficial drift round 
their bases. It has been able in course of time to wash out and 
])ress back the salt water. Wells in such places however, are very 
often found to turn salt very rapidly when used, the drainage into 
the well evidently soon drawing back the salt water which had been 
displaced by fresh. It is also very often found that one must be 
very careful about deepening such wells, as the fresh water zone 
is often quickly j)assed through and salt water found below it. 
A curious instance of fresh water in salt country was found when 
boring for water at the Jaurdie Hills not tar from Cooigardie. A 
small valley comes out of the hills, down w'hich at times of heavy 
rain there is a fairly strong How of water which soon is absorbed 
when it reaches the plain. Horings found that the alluvial drift in 
the flat at the mouth of this little valley w'as some <>0-7b feet deep, 
if my memory is correct, and three of these bores got salt water. 
A fourth. t)ut dov.ri within the triangle formed l)y the first three, 
obtained fairly fresh water, but when a w'ell was sunk the water 
soon became salt. 'I'he explanation doubtless is that the alluvial 
drift was salt in the main. l)ut that the fresh w'aler from the hills 
had established a line of tlow^ for itself througli the drift, along 
\vhich the sail had been w'ashed out. ’I'he fresh water bore hap- 
pened to hit this channel and got fresh water, but the demands of 
a well sot>n brought in the salt water from the surrounding sab 
country. Another fresh water well at Cooigardie in its early 
days was a bonanza for a short time to its owner, but it soon alsL. 
became salt. 
Continuing northw'ards, fresh w'ater wells and soaks become 
much more frc(|nent and more permanent, and the salinity of other 
wells is generally much less than in the southern districts. North 
of Kookynie. fresh water wells become tjuite common, though the 
lowest lying ground is a])t to he very salt, and salt lakes arc still 
cDinmon. Rising into still higher country the wells are (.)n the 
whole fairly fresh, and iiiaiiv of them excellent water, though 
there is often great variation in the salinity of wells quite near one 
another. Is it not pretty clear that height above sea level is the 
principal factor in the prol)leni, and that the country which stands 
highest has had the best chance of having the salt removed from 
it by rains and the gradual down grade How' of the ground waters;’ 
Also if the theory of submergence under the sea by subsidence and 
subsequent emergence by elevation be correct, the higher country 
