Evening star., 1902-03-15
AN AUSTRALIAN LAKE
LOST TO SIGHT FOR YEARS AND
THEN APPEARS AGAIN.
Thousands of Sheep and Cattle Pasture
in It's Bed at Times-Then the
Settlers Have to Flee.

TON the New 1QTk sun.
| Lake George, the largest lake of New
/ South Wales. Australia, has no outlet ex-
| cept evaporation. For a series of years
the brooks that tumble down the noun
| tains which edge the lake may steadily
| contribute to 1t larger quantity Of water
| than is eyaporated from its surface.
| Then the lake steadily rises. The water
pushes north and south until the lake is
| twenty-one miles or more in length with a
width of seven or eight miles.
For another series of years the water
brought by the brooks may be steadily
smaller than the quantity evaporated. Then
the lake begins to fall, shrinking in few
years to half its former dimensions, this
process going on sometimes till Lake
George entirely disappears except for
few water holes in the lowest parts of its
bed. The lake was in flood during 1891, ex-
tending north and south for tWenty-one
miles with depth of twelve feet.
Pasture Land
Twice in the last century thousands of
sheep and cattle were pastured on large
areas now covered with water They were
the most numerous representatives there of
the larger forms Of animal life, just as fish
and water fowl are today.
| The cabins Of the stock ra isers or squat
| ters. they are called. were scattered over
the meadows. Vegetables were raised and
patches of wheat. So little known of
Lake George in those days that the herders
really had a feeling of security and per-
manency; but the day came when the ris-
| ing waters swished around the cabins
drowned some of the stock and drove the
| squatters, to the highlands. Everybody
knows now that the bed of Lake George
offers very uncertain tenure TO settlers
When it comes into view again perhaps no
attempt will be made to utilize it on 50
large scale as was done in the '30s~ and
'4Us Of the last century.
Near the Blue Mountains.
The lake, which is about 80 miles south
west of Sydney, near the south end of the
| Blue mountains, was for many years al
| most inaccessible among the Wilds that
| hem it in, but now a branch Of the railroad
| between Sydney and Melbourne skirts its
| eastern shore. Many sportsmen alight at
| the neighboring station for season of fish
| ing or shooting.
| The incredible number Of ducks, swans,
| pelicans and other water fowl makes the
| lake of the finest shooting resorts in
| New South Wales. The birds have few
such opportunities in the almost lakeless
! continent, and they make the most Of this
| basin when it is worthy to be called a lake
| At an elevation of over 22O0 feet not many
| lakes outside Of Africa and inner Asia are
| SO high above the sea.
Evaporation.
The lake lies at the lower end Of a basin
| so walled in by mountains and hills that
| the drainage into 1t has no chance to es-
| cape to the sea. It was long before this
| fact was discovered. Some early maps
| show Lake George the probable source
| of a small river known on the coast; but a
careful survey finally revealed the fact that
/ not drop of water escapes from the basin
| except to the clouds.
The native blacks have always regarded
| it with superstitious dread. When they pi-
| loted the first exploring party to the lake in
! 1920 the first reports of its existence came
| from the blacks in 1879 splendid sheet Of
| water was found.
Stories of the Natives.
| The whites We're first perpleXed and then
| amused by the stories the natives told
| them One old woman said she had seen
| time when there was no lake. but many
| trees were growing over the place now
| covered with water. Others reported that
| sometimes the lake disappeared and a
| number of little ponds occupied it's place;
| still others affirmed that all of the water
| sometimes sank through the bottom and
| nothing was to be seen but dry land
| 1t was years before it was discovered
| that the natives had been tryin; to tell, in
| their imperfect way, of phenomena that
| mystified them. 1t all seemed very un-
| lake and usually avoided it. Eighteen
| years elapsed after the white settlers be-
| came acquainted with the lake before it's
| waters entirely disappeared. In 1888 and
| 1899 the surface of the lake bed was dry
| and firm.