e inches of rain fell here in Melbourne inside
of nine hours. An inch of rain in an hour is a good deal, isn't it?'

"Ned and I admitted that it was, and then our informant continued:--

"'I happened to be in Newcastle early in 1871, when they had the
greatest rainfall that I ever saw or heard of in any country. In less
than three hours ten and a half inches of rain fell, and the story was
that it was so thick that the fishes in the harbor could not distinguish
between the rain cloud and the bay, and actually swam up half a mile or
so into the air. One man said that he had a barrel with both ends
knocked out, and the rain went in at the bung hole faster than it could
run out at the ends.'

"I asked the gentleman how long the storm lasted, and he said that
twenty-one hours elapsed between the beginning and the end of it, and
during that time twenty inches of water fell, and the streets of
Newcastle were like small rivers.

"The gentleman remarked, in conclusion, that it was a great pity the
rainfall was not distributed more evenly, both in time and amount, than
it is. Some parts of the coast get a great deal more rain than they
have any use for. The floods destroy a large amount of property, and the
superfluous rain flows away in the rivers, inundating large areas of
ground and doing more harm than good, but through the greater part of
the interior the rainfall is far less than the land requires. The ground
becomes parched, the streets dry up, and the grasses wither, and the
whole face of nature presents a scene of sterility. Sometimes there is
no rain for long periods. There have been times when not a drop of rain
fell for two years, and but for the heavy dews at night, a vast extent
of land would have been absolutely turned to a desert. Cattle and sheep
perished by the million, of starvation and thirst. The production of
grain fell off enormously and the whole country was very seriously
affected.

"Ned asked if no remedy had ever been found or proposed for this state
of affairs.

"A remedy had been suggested, said the gentleman, which would save herds
of cattle and flocks of sheep, but it would not save from destruction
the crops in the fields.

"'What is that?' Ned asked.

"'It is a system of storing water throughout the interior of the country
so as to save the precious fluid when the rainfall is excessive. There
are many places, great numbers of them, where nature has so formed the
ground that the storage