THE CITY 01- SYDNEY. 



pointed to a small, feebly-running creek and a shallow engine-ppnd, they have derisively 

 ejaculated, " Why, there is not a week's supply." And it is quite true that very often 

 there is not so much as a week's supply visible on the surface ; but it continually 

 oozes out, and in very dry seasons the percolation has been assisted by cutting ditches 

 into the hills. 



The Botany supply became, however, unequal to the wants of the population, and the 

 water from the Nepean is now the principal reliance of the city; but the Uotany sand- 

 slope served the purposes of Sydney for about half a century. Its peculiar character 

 and value were not at first understood, and it was condemned as insufficient for very 

 many years before it really proved so. It was only by slow degrees that its extra- 

 ordinary capability was duly appreciated ; and it is still one of the curiosities of the 

 place, and a study for hydraulic engineers. 



The new system for supplying the city is on a larger scale, and follows the 

 customary lines. The water is intercepted at a distance of sixty miles or thereabouts 

 from Sydney, in deep gorges 

 in sandstone country ; the 

 channels are dammed, and 

 the water is then diverted 

 through two long tunnels to 

 a point from which it can be 

 conveyed in an open cutting, 

 by a steadily-descending gra- 

 dient to a large reservoir 

 constructed at Prospect, about 

 four miles to the south-west of 

 Parramatta. No considerable 

 quantity can be stored at the 

 sources, because the character 

 of the country does not admit 

 of the formation of any capa- 

 cious basin, and therefore the 

 water has to be collected at 

 the most suitable place that 

 can be found on the line of 

 route. From the Prospect 

 Reservoir it is conveyed in 

 an open cutting to a point 

 about ten miles from Sydney, 

 and for the remainder of the 

 distance in pipes, through 

 which it is delivered by gravitation into a large brick tank at Sum- Hills. 

 supply of the more elevated suburbs water is pumped into a second tank at Paddmgton, 

 and into a third, at a still greater elevation, at \Yaverley. The cost of this scheme, by 

 the time it is finally completed, will be about two million sterling. 



STATt'K. MACOrAKIK PLACE. 



