56 SYDKET "WATEE SUPPLY BY GEAVITATION. 



of excessive watershed in a droughty climate. I rely on its 

 comparative inexpensiveness ; on its perfect freedom from all 

 harassing compensations ; on the unsullied purity of its waters 

 for delivery ; on its short cut course for Sydney ; and on its great 

 simplicity, which may cause the works, if my scheme be adopted 

 by the Country, to be completed within the same time that the 

 Illawarra Railway, — if simultaneously undertaken, — can be ready 

 for traffic to "Wollongong. 



Note eefeeeed to at fage 46. 



At this part of my paper I would desire to attract more and special attention to the 

 great advantages that Tve have at our command by the valuable north-westerly dip of the 

 immense Sydney coal basin, and quite apart from our appreciation of all its vast coal- 

 bearing importance. 



In the hopes then of conveying to your minds the full force of our e;eological advantages 

 for the production of an immense and constantly running supply of the purest of waters, I 

 would wish to point out facts which are probably unknown to many who are present. 



Our sandstones which overlie our coal on the Illawarra ranges are the same as the grcs 

 houillcr of the French, and the kohlen sandstein of the Germans ; they not only dip inland 

 and towards Sydney, bnt they possess (for us) the additional advantage of being more 

 stratified and not so compact as are the Old red, the Exeter red, and most other sandstones 

 and conglomerates ; and therefore our formation can readily give off its accumulation of 

 waters constantly and slowh' by its easy fall of 2 degrees west, when the stratifications would 

 be intersected by my proposed supply aqueduct, and by the delivery tunnel and delivery 

 aqueduct as far as to the iron mains at 1,0.'50 feet elevation. 



In order that we should appreciate fully the immense value of the stratifications, and of . 

 the extremely light north-westerly dip of our Illawarra ranges, for the benefit of a grand 

 water supply for Sydney, we should do well to compare our own good fortune in this 

 respect with that of other extensive countries on the coast of the Mediterranean, and 

 especially along the northern parts of Palestine. 



I'he dip of the formations there is the same as ours, only that there the sea is on the 

 west of Palestine, whilst we have it on the east ; and their stratifications are probably 

 much steeper than ours, and dip into the sea, whilst ours dip inland ; at same time, the 

 formations of those parts do not belong to our close and stratified sandstone class, but 

 belong to the Jurassic formation, which is cliietiy composed of strata of marls and of porous 

 and often times cavernous limestones of the oolitic kind. The consequence ot this great 

 difference is, and as we are told by the Syrian missionary, Dr. W. 51. Thomson, in his work 

 entitled "Land and the Book," (at page 181), that along the northern coast of Palestine, 

 especially by Sidoii and Tyre, " the waters during the rainy months pass off by the strata into 

 the sea by innumerable streams, and with such peculiar force that at Ruad, the Arvad 

 of the Bible, a fountain bursts up from the bottom of the sea, of such enormous size and 

 power as to make the whole surface to boil like a cauldron " 



Should not then this compari.son cause us to rejoice at our great and superior advantage 

 of h.aving our stratified coal sandstones at high elevations over the sea, receiving the rains 

 openmouthed from even the extreme easterly projecting cliffs towards the ocean, and from 

 whence the pure waters are slowly conveyed to the opposite, inland, and western side of the 

 coast range, by Nature's own gravitation principle in these parts, and through the north- 

 westerly dip ? 



Here, in the long and high coast range of Illawarra, would be our greate.st storage 

 reservoir, where our supplies would be so well retained for us, and be ready in boundless 

 quantities for our future Sydney use, by the adoption of my simple principle of tapping 

 our enormous sandstone filter for miles and miles when required, along a base line and 

 section that we could cut at such elevation as would suit our own gravitation .scheme of 

 conducting a new river that might thus be formed and sent into the great Loddon Eeservoir. 



I sincerely trust that this elucidation of my supply, storage, and gravitation scheme 

 may go far to settle your convictions of the magnitude and value of Nature's great gift 

 within your reach. 



