tance.

by the united waters of many streams, each of considerable local imporIts chief tributaries come from the table-land or gorges of the Blue Mountains, but the principal branch of the river itself rises in the main range, farther south. The range forming the watershed between the Hawkesbury and the streams flowing eastward, leaves the main range near Lake Bathurst, runs north-easterly, and terminates at the sea near Coalcliff.

Under the name of the Wollondilly, the Hawkesbury has its source not many miles from Goulburn. Flowing past that town, it proceeds in a northerly direction until it receives the waters of the Cox River, which come from the Blue Mountains, after passing through wild gorges, wherein may be found some of the most magnificent scenery in Australia. From the junction of the Cox River the stream is known as the Warragamba, which name it retains until its junction with the Nepean. Though smaller than the Warragamba, the Nepean gives its name to the united waters of the two streams. After receiving the Nepean, the river flows along the foot of the Blue Mountains, through a rich valley highly cultivated. From the Blue Mountains it is augmented by the waters of two streams, the Grose and the Colo, and from the junction of the latter the river is called the Hawkesbury. Still running northward, it is joined by the Macdonald, an important stream, navigable for some distance above its confluence with the Hawkesbury. The Macdonald comes from the north, and joins the river on the left bank. After turning to the east, the Hawkesbury holds its course through broken country, the scenery of which has been pronounced equal to any other river scenery in the world, and finally reaches the sea at Broken Bay. Its course extends over 330 miles, and the drainage area may be set down as 8,000 square miles. Navigation is possible as far as Windsor, 70 miles from the mouth, and a little dredging would enable sea-going vessels to reach that town.

In the neighbourhood of Sydney, some small streams fall into Botany Bay. Two of these, the Woronora and George's River, have their sources on the eastern slope of the ranges in which the Nepean, Cordeaux, and Cataract rise, and after rapid courses unite their waters before falling into the bay.

Generally speaking, the rivers south of Sydney are of less importance than those to the north, as the width of the coastal strip narrows considerably. The Shoalhaven, nevertheless, merits more than passing notice. Rising in the coastal range and following the direction of the coast, it flows northerly through deep gullies, marked by magnificent scenery peculiarly Australian; then turning sharply to the east, it enters the alluvial plains, which are counted amongst the richest and most productive in the country. The Shoalhaven is 260 miles in length, but is navigable only for a few miles, and drains a district 3,300 miles in area. Farther south, in the narrow belt between the ranges and the sea, flow the Clyde, Moruya, Tuross, and Bega Rivers. They all pass through rich, undulating, agricultural country, and each has an average length

of 60 to 70 miles. The Towamba River, at the extreme south of the state, empties itself into the Pacific at Twofold Bay.

The physical aspect of the eastern rivers is much the same, their upper courses being amidst broken and mountainous districts, and their lower waters flowing through undulating country with rich alluvial flats along their banks, for the most part highly cultivated. Where uncultivated, the country is densely covered with timber, some of which attains a magnificent growth, yielding the finest hardwood, and, in the north, cedar and pine.

Though belonging to another river system, the upper basin of the Snowy River is situated in New South Wales. This river receives the snow-fed streams rising on the southern slopes of the Monaro Range, its principal tributaries being the Bombala and the Eucumbene. The Snowy River and its tributaries water a considerable portion of the highest table-land of the state, between the mountain ranges of which are found large tracts of arable land. After leaving New South Wales, the Snowy has a rapid and tortuous course, and finally enters the sea between Cape Howe and Bass Straits, in the state of Victoria. The area of its watershed in New South Wales is about 2,800 square miles.

The western watershed of the state is, in its physical features and geographical character, the antithesis of the eastern. Instead of a narrow strip of country shut in by the sea and mountains, and intersected by numerous short rivers with a rapid flow, the western watershed forms a vast basin through which the quiet waters of a few great rivers have their long though uncertain courses. The rivers of the western region all belong to the fluvial system of the Murray, which carries to the Southern Ocean, through the state of South Australia, the drainage of a watershed immense in extent, embracing the northern portion of Victoria and the western and larger part of New South Wales, and reaching almost to the centre of Queensland.

The Murray, or Hume, the southern branch of this vast river system, rises in the Snowy Mountains, from which its three principal sources, the Hume, the Tooma, and the Indi descend. The first two of these streams rise on the northern and western slopes of Mount Kosciusko; the Indi, which is really the main river, has a longer course, rising in a gully near the Pilot Mountain, at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea. From the confluence of these rivers the Murray rapidly descends towards the plains below Albury, where it is only 490 feet above sea level, with a course of 1,439 miles still to run. From Albury downwards the river receives many tributaries on both banks, those from New South Wales being the most important. Above Albury the tributaries are for the most part mountain torrents, carrying to the main stream the melted snows of the Australian Alps. In its lower course, however, the Murray is augmented, through the Murrumbidgee and the Darling, by the waters of secondary systems as important as its own.

Before being joined by the Murrumbidgee, the Murray receives, from a series of ana-branches, the drainage of a large portion of the country lying between the two main streams. The Billabong Creek runs almost through the centre of the plain spreading between the Murray and Murrumbidgee; in the middle of its course it communicates with the latter river, through Colombo and Yanko Creeks, whilst on the south it feeds the Murray by the channel of the Edward River. The Edward itself is an important stream. With the Wakool, Tupal, and Bullatale Creeks, and many other smaller and less important water-courses, it forms a fluvial system, interlacing the whole country from Tocumwal to the Murrumbidgee junction, which has been aptly named Riverina. From its farthest source at the foot of the Pilot Mountain to the town of Albury, the Murray has a length of 280 miles; thence to the Darling River junction its course is 852 miles; and from that point to the sea, below Lake Alexandrina, it is 587 miles in length. The river has thus a total course of 1,719 miles, of which 1,250 are between the states of Victoria and New South Wales. It has been navigated as far as the Ournie gold-field, about 150 miles above Albury, and 1,590 miles from its mouth.

Its

The Murrumbidgee has its source at the foot of a hill overlooking the Coolamon Plains, at a height of nearly 5,000 feet above the sea. course first shapes itself southward, but near the town of Cooma it takes a sharp curve and runs in a northerly direction until it approaches Yass. Here it curves again, trending to the west in a line parallel to the Murray; but turning south-west on receiving the Lachlan, it finally joins the main river after a course of 1,350 miles. The area drained by the Murrumbidgee is estimated at 15,400 square miles. In the upper part of its course it receives from both sides numerous rivers and creeks, the most important of which are the Umaralla, Molonglo, and Yass Rivers on its right, and the Goodradigbee and Tumut Rivers on its left bank. All these flow through mountainous country over a series of plateaux, which from the Coolamon and Coorangorambula Plains to the plains round Gundagai and Wagga successively diminish in height from 5,000 feet to 720 feet and 607 feet above the sea.

The chief tributary of the Murrumbidgee is the Lachlan, rising in the Main Dividing Range, where its principal feeders also have their source. These are the Boorowa, Crookwell, Abercrombie, and Belubula-all rapid streams, occasionally swollen by melted snows from the tableland. After receiving the Boorowa, the Lachlan flows to the Murrumbidgee, through 500 miles of plain country, without receiving any tributary of a permanent character. The water-courses which carry off the surplus water from the plains on each side of the river, only reach it in time of flood. The total length of the stream is 700 miles, and its basin has an area of 13,500 square miles. The lines of demarcation between the Lachlan basin and that of the Murrumbidgee on the south and of the Darling on the north-west, are hardly perceptible on the ground, so flat is the country through which these great rivers flow.

Of all the tributaries of the Murray, the Darling drains the largest area, extending as it does over the greater portion of the western district of New South Wales, and embracing nearly all Southern Queensland. From its confluence with the Murray at Wentworth up to its junction with the Culgoa a few miles above Bourke, the Darling receives only two tributaries, the Paroo and the Warrego, both intermittent, though of vast size in times of flood. For over 1,000 miles this great river holds its solitary course, Nile-like, feeding the thirsty plains of the south with water falling many hundred miles distant on the downs of Queensland. The course of the river is tortuous in the extreme in many places a narrow neck of land, a mile or two across, separates parts of the river 20 miles distant if the stream were followed. The Darling presents the phenomenon, not uncommon in Australian rivers, of banks much higher than the plain behind; indeed, the river bed itself, though from 30 to 40 feet beneath the bank, is in some places but little below the general level of the country. Successive floods have added to the height of the banks, and have raised the bed of the stream correspondingly.

The Darling has no source under that name, which applies only to that part of the river as far as the Bogan junction. Above this point it takes the name of the Barwon, until its confluence with the Gwydir; then it is known as the Macintyre, and afterwards the main branch receives the name of the Dumaresq. The last-named stream has its source in the Dividing Range, on the summit of the table-land at the extreme north-east of the state, not far from the head of the Richmond. The Dumaresq, Macintyre, and Barwon form, however, what might really be called the Upper Darling, and this appellation would be geographically accurate. The variety of names by which, not only the Darling, but many other Australian rivers are known, is due to the fact that they were discovered in sections, the identity of which was not established until years afterwards, and the sectional names have survived. The Darling receives, in its upper course, many tributaries, which drain the southern portion of Queensland, but these rivers only flow for a short part of their courses in New South Wales. Chief among them are the Mooni, Narran, Bokhara, Culgoa, Warrego, and Paroo. The principal affluents of the Darling within the boundaries of New South Wales are on the left bank. The Gwydir, Namoi, Castlereagh, Macquarie, and Bogan are the most important. These streams are all of considerable length and similar in character; their upper valleys are on the tablelands, and their lower courses lie through alluvial plains and good pastoral country. The Darling is navigable, in times of freshets, as far as the township of Walgett, 1,758 miles from its confluence with the Murray; thence to the sea the distance is 587 miles, making a total length of navigable water from Walgett to the sea of 2,345 miles, and it therefore ranks high amongst the rivers of the world, as estimated by navigable length. Unfortunately, however, its upper course is open only during part of the year.

Here and there along the course of the western rivers are found lakes, sometimes of considerable dimensions. These lakes are in reality shallow depressions, receiving water from the overflow of the rivers in times of flood, and in return feeding them when the floods have subsided. Lake Urana is the most important in the Murray and Murrumbidgee basin, and Lakes Cowal, Cudgellico, and Waljeers, in that of the Lachlan. Along the Darling are Lakes Poopelloe and Gunyulka on the left bank, and Laidley's Ponds and Lakes Pammaroo, Tandou, and Cawndilla on the right, near Menindie. On the South Australian frontier are Lake Victoria, formed by the overflow of the Murray, and others of less importance. The area of these lakes is undefined, as they vary in size according to the rainfall, sometimes covering a vast extent of country, and at other times being reduced to the proportions of mere waterholes, whilst in seasons of great drought they are absolutely dry.

On the summit of the Main Dividing Range, and within a few miles of the inland towns of Goulburn, Queanbeyan, and Braidwood, two of the principal lakes of the state are situated. Lake George is 16 miles in length and 6 miles in width, draining a basin whose area is about 490 square miles. It is situated at an elevation of 2,200 feet above the sea, and the scenery around it is very beautiful. This lake exhibits the phenomenon of a large drainage area without a visible outlet, for though it receives many small water-courses, no stream leaves it. Lake Bathurst, a few miles east of Lake George, is another depression on the summit of the Dividing Range, and covers in ordinary seasons an area of about 15 square miles. It is similar in character to Lake George, having no outlet to the sea. Both lakes, in periods of great drought, shrink considerably in area; but Lake George in most seasons is a fine sheet of water.