In England, the word means a barrierto stop water in Australia, it also means the water so stopped,as `O.E.D.' shows it does in Yorkshire.
1873. Marcus Clarke, `Holiday Peak, &c.,' p. 76:
«The dams were brimming at Quartz-borough, St. Roy reservoirwas running over.»
1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb., p. 141:
«Dams as he calls his reservoirs scooped out in the hard soil.»
1893. `The Leader,' Jan. 14:
«A boundary rider has been drowned in a dam.»
1893. `The Times,' [Reprint] `Letters from Queensland,' p. 68:
«At present few stations are subdivided into paddocks smallerthan 20,000 acres apiece. If in each of these there is but onewaterhole or dam that can be relied upon to hold out indrought, sheep and cattle will destroy as much grass intramping from the far corners of the grazing to the drinkingspot as they will eat. Four paddocks of 5,000 acres each, wellsupplied with water, ought to carry almost double the number ofsheep.»
1896. `The Argus,' March 30, p. 6, col. 9:
«[The murderer] has not since been heard of. Dams andwaterholes have been dragged . . . but without result.»